Fighting the drug menace in Ghana

Pages 22-23: Daily Graphic, July 23, 2012. Article: Albert K. Salia “Traffickers care very little about the sanctions of the criminal justice system. Going to jail is just part of the cost of doing business. It’s a nuisance, not a deterrent” - Kurt Schmoke, one-time Mayor of Baltimore. IT IS a fact that many countries in the world are struggling with how to fight the drug menace. The drug problem is not peculiar to Ghana. However, many of these nations tailor their efforts at fighting the narcotic menace in a well-co-ordinated direction. They have strategic direction in which they pursue the fight of illicit drug trafficking and abuse. Crucial in this exercise is the enactment of a strong legislation and institutions with the requisite personnel to lead the onslaught against narcotic dealers. This is where Ghana appears to be lacking. As of now, there seem to be a lack of clear direction on a national narcotics strategy and thus, leaving the country at the mercy of the international/donor community whereby government accepts all external intervention programmes without local input. The Kufuor administration had good reasons to make narcotic offences unbailable. This has, however, not seen full implementation. Rather, some suspects have been granted bail and one wonders what might have happened to those cases. For instance, two suspects were granted bail on November 23, 2010 to enable the NACOB officials to travel to Panama to conduct further investigations. The question is, did NACOB officials embark on the trip? What was the outcome of their investigations and have those two suspects been acquitted and discharged or the case still hangs around their necks? A former Deptuy Attorney-General during the Kufuor Administration, Mr Kwame Osei-Prempeh was reported to have accused the NACOB Executive Secretary, Mr Yaw Akrasi Sarpong, of turning himself into an advocate for drug traffickers when the court granted the suspects bail. Besides this zig-zag application of the law, there appears to be no sustained development of personnel of NACOB. Although training is provided, the personnel are not motivateed to develop their careers due to their frequent changes and shuffling from one unit to the other. The argument is that such shuffling will prevent personnel from becoming too familiar with the terrain and becoming prone to corruption. But this is not acceptable because the use of a counter-intelligence unit or what the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority has set up, Internal Affairs, could also be replicated in the organisation to deal with corrupt tendencies can help. The current situation where new officers are appointed after every change of government and they have to take two to three years to build their capacity needs further interrogation. The element of uncertainty regarding changes to be made and the notion of “I will never get to the top”, rather fertilise the terrain for corrupt practices. Besides the well-known difficulties in fighting the drug menace, politicisation of the drug issue has assumed the biggest and greatest challenge in Ghana. It is no longer about how the battle is tackled, but which government or political party is really committed to fighting the drug menace. This in itself is not bad especially when political parties make electoral promises on how to deal with the drug menace on assumption of power. However, the way and manner it is carried out is the problem. The issues are not carried out holistically but tainted with party colours. Informing the public about the government’s effort at dealing with the drug situation is very welcome but telling the public how safe the country has become under a regime is not the way out. The debate should be about policy direction. Afterall, the number of arrests made does not indicate how successful a government has been in dealing with the drug menace. That is because the data released could be interpreted from two major perspectives. First, the more arrests made could be interpreted as the effect of an effective security system in place and secondly, as the result of the high prevalence of drugs in the country. Remaining silent on the issue does not also mean that there are no drugs in the country or the dealers see Ghana as a no-go area. That is why the issue of drugs should be dispasstionately looked at and a national policy crafted. The drug problem goes beyond law enforcement. It has demand reduction and treatment and rehabilitation components. These are the issues that should be addressed. That is why the United Nations, in its wisdom advised that combating the drug threat would require “comprehensive and multidisciplinary” strategies to cover programmes aimed at reducing illicit demand, reducing illicit drug cultivation and drug trafficking, prevent the use of financial and banking systems for drug money as well as promoting the effective treatment, rehabilitation and social reintegration. Fortunately, Parliament recently passed the Ghana Mental Health Bill which should be implemented to the letter to ensure that the treatment and rehabilitation component of the drug war is won. When it comes to law enforcement, the main focus should not be about stopping drugs from leaving the airport and coming into the country but it must as well include stopping criminals from enjoying the proceeds from their crime through the confiscation of their assets. While we still struggle with how to deal with cannabis, cocaine and heroin, the latest on the block is Methamphetamine, a white, odorless, crystalline powder that easily dissolves in water or alcohol.It is taken orally, by snorting the powder or needle injection, or smoking. It is the current moving and most trafficked drug emerging in West Africa with an estimated profit margin higher than cocaine. Recently, two laboratories were shut down in Nigeria for producing methamphetamine. It is suspected that there could be a laboratory in Ghana also producing methamphetamine following the recent arrests of some Ghanaians in Amsterdam, Holland , who had travelled from Accra. As recently as March 21, 2012, three persons were fined by the Accra High Court for attempted exportation of methamphetamine, whose offence is punishable by a fine under our laws. Ghana has a long a way to go in fighting the drug menace and we must all support the Narcotics Control Board in this national assignment. It is not about which government is in power. The ramifications of the drug problem are not bestowed on members of a political party but the nation as a whole. Apart from all that has been said “the drug war in Ghana cannot be fought around Political statements but with professional strategies and structures. If we leave political appointees to tell us what the situation is, we will only get what they want us to believe. The fight suffers from the use of political lenses in the running of the drug control institution; this is why we find ourselves in a stagnant situation. We can decide to do nothing and people will believe we are doing well. After all, the system only gets to talk about the drug situation when there is an arrest. What if we decide not to arrest? It may then mean, there is no drug problem. Or what if we decide to turn a blind eye. There will be no drug seizure reports and as such people will believe we are doing well.