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Drug abuse: New trends pop out

Drug abuse: New trends pop out

Youngsters have taken the abuse of illicit drugs to a high level with the consumption of a combination of different drugs at a go.

The practice involves the combination of two or three illicit drugs.

Some of the names given to the combination or mixture of these drugs are ‘underground’, ‘Bermuda’ and ‘arostor’, which are often a mixture of marijuana also known as ‘wee’ and alcohol.

The Head of the Addictive Diseases Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Mr Logosu Amegashie, who disclosed this in an interview with the Graphic Youth World, noted that there was also the combination of cocaine, heroin and marijuana, with the street name, ‘Campucheers’.

“The cocktail is marijuana and heroin mixed together,” he said.

Danger

Another danger creeping into the practice of illicit drug use, he said, was the abuse of prescription drugs.

“People are now abusing the capsule Tramadol (used to treat severe pain). They are also abusing valium (diazepam), which is used to treat anxiety disorders and alcohol withdrawal symptoms. I hear there are club drugs now in the system that people take to be continuously happy,” he lamented.

Mr Amegashie noted that the abuse of prescription drugs was initially not known in the country until recently when it got to the attention of the unit. 

He said what pertained in the country was the use of ‘wee’, cocaine, heroin and injection pethidine and blamed dealers who did not care about the negative effects of prescription drugs on users.

Some dealers, he said, did not demand prescriptions from qualified doctors and pharmacists before selling those drugs to people.

“Injection pethidine is supposed to be part of the dangerous drugs but it is out there on the market. People get as much as a whole box for use,” he pointed out.

The unit, Mr Amegashie said, had had some cases where people used injection pethidine.

He called for a sustained national campaign against illicit drug use, especially among the youth of the country.

The campaign, he said, should be held in schools right from the basic level, in communities and at social gatherings because the issue was a canker that needed to be dealt with by all stakeholders — parents, teachers, school authorities, religious and traditional leaders, among other personalities.

Mr Amegashie said once people got addicted to the abuse of drugs, getting them to stop the practice was difficult, hence the need for collective action, “because once a youngster is hooked onto drugs, the family will be affected in a way”.

“Addiction is a chronic relapsing brain disease characterised by compulsive sickling and abusing of drugs, despite the consequences. Therefore, the consequences are not only medical — we have social, psychological and medical consequences when people become dependent on drugs,” he noted.

The social complications, he said, were dysfunctional homes, rape, defilement, armed robbery, gang rape and incest, all because of drug abuse.

“The youth are a threatened segment of the population when it comes to drug abuse,” he stressed.

Drug addicts

A drug addict (name withheld) said in an interview that he was introduced to marijuana by a friend while in Form Three in senior high school (SHS).

“The guy was good in Mathematics and so I got close to him so that he could help me. One day, I went to his house and he told me that he had something that could help me to study and that was marijuana,” he said, adding: “That was how I started.”

He said it had not been easy to stop because he had made many attempts to do so but without success.

“That is why I am at the addictive unit,” he said.

Another drug addict (name withheld) said he started abusing drugs from 1992 because of the influence of a friend.

He said drugs had had devastating consequences on him until he found the addictive unit, which had transformed his life.

“By listening to people who went through the problem, I was able to abstain from drugs for four years. But due to financial reasons, I went back to drugs. Now I have seen some kind of change in my life and I am married with children,” he said. 

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