Ghana is one of the countries which are hard hit by the global economic crunch. Countries that have laid good economic foundations over the years were cushioned against these difficult times.
The same, however, cannot be said of our beloved country, Ghana. For as long as Ghana does not return to basics and focus on agriculture and the production sectors of our economy, we will continue to face such challenges in the future should we recover from our present predicament.
However, in our current situation, we need to take all measures to ensure that the public purse is used judiciously and we have value for money. In our bid to enforce the laws of the country, we need to ask ourselves a few questions: Is this course of action cost effective? What do we seek to achieve? Is it the best practice worldwide and has the goal any scientific justification?
INTERNATIONAL LAWS
Ghana always prides itself as one of the foremost countries to ratify international laws, and the laws on prohibition of narcotics is no exception. The 1961 and 1971 conventions on psychoactive substances placed all known substances in various classes of prohibition and Ghana, as a signatory to these laws, was mandated to let her laws be consistent with these international laws. The convention was that, ‘Place all substances you are not sure about (in terms of its properties) in the most restrictive level unless otherwise proven by thorough scientific enquiry’.
EVALUATION OF THESE LAWS
After several years of implementation of these laws, it is generally believed that these laws have failed to render our societies drug-free, which was one of the aims of these international laws. Indeed, the war on drugs has tended to be war against the users of drugs to the advantage of all those involved in the production chain, including drug traffickers. The media landscape is inundated with news of drug traffickers and their accomplices and there seems no end in sight.
The United Nations (UN) itself has set up several expert commissions to evaluate these laws, and one drug that has received several evaluations has been the cannabis herb. The conclusions of experts in the addiction field and other stakeholders have been that, cannabis is wrongly placed and there is the need to change the laws to be consistent with what we now know about the cannabis plant. The question is; why haven’t the laws been changed? International politics as usual, while some also believe it’s all about conspiracy in favour of the multinational pharmaceutical companies.
CHANGING THE LAWS
There is good scientific evidence that cannabis may offer control of the immune system and in turn provide protection from some viral infections.
Cannabis has already been recognised to inhibit fungus and bacteria growth. There is some sort of agreement among medical practitioners as to the medicinal benefits of cannabis. However, the challenge is how to make it safer for recreational users. The recommended way to go is “Harm Reduction,” just in the same lines of encouragement of condom use among adolescents.
Indeed, most countries that were signatory states alongside Ghana, realising the injustices in the classification of cannabis, have taken bold steps to change their laws. Apart from Uruguay which has completely legalised the herb, Holland tolerates retail use in their famous coffee shops set up. Others have shifted from criminal penalties to civil penalties and I wish Ghana would at least, make some amendments by shifting to civil penalties. In other jurisdictions you are only arrested and taken to a community tribunal when you are found with five days supply of the drug.
THE COST OF MAINTAINING A DRUG USER IN CUSTODY
One of the reasons given to support the claim that the international conventions have been a failure is the shifting of scarce resources to arrest, detain, prosecute and incarcerate offenders. It is believed that if we are able to cost the resources expended in taking an offending drug user through the process, and we compare it to our overall objective, we may conclude that it is really not worth it.
A BIRD IN HAND…
This year alone, psychiatric nurses in the country, especially those who work at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, have undertaken a number of demonstrations to press home demand for improved conditions for the mentally ill patients at the facility. This is because, despite the fact that the management has taken steps to reduce the patient population by half the previous number, the hospital is still grappling with taking care of those on admission. I can state emphatically that the state has not provided the mainstream psychotropic medications for use by the three psychiatric hospitals for this year, 2014.
Feeding the about 500 patients of the Accra psychiatric hospital is a big challenge to the management of the hospital since the government is not forthcoming with the projected amount to take care of the patients. This has made suppliers to grade the hospital as ‘not credit worthy’. This resulted in the situation where one day, the patients were deprived of breakfast. This is no doubt unacceptable and it is the nurses who usually bear the brunt of the aggression from patients. Sometimes, getting fuel into vehicles to transport patients outside the facility for treatment or examinations at other health facilities becomes a challenge. Recently, the Accra Psychiatric Hospital had to follow the other two psychiatric hospitals in the country by stopping admissions for almost a week due to the financial challenges. The amount of money the state would have to spend on a harmless citizen who is a drug offender would do a whole lot of good in the psychiatric hospitals.
The writer is a student of International Programme in Addiction Studies and a staff at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital.
