Alcohol menace in Upper East Region?
It is the latest craze in town. Drinking bars are springing up across the region with such rapidity and that is a worry to many residents.
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The rate at which bars and drinking joints are springing up in different parts in the Bolgatanga municipality indicates that more residents are not only looking for ways to burn stress, but are also promoting alcoholism.
The situation has become alarming to the extent that hardly does one move beyond a stone-throw in the municipality without seeing a drinking bar.
The fact is that along all the major streets and other parts of the municipality, the operation of bars and joints have become a choice business.
And the owners of these facilities are from varied backgrounds. While some are politicians and retired civil servants; others are businessmen. Sad to say, the clientele these joints attract are mainly the youth, even though adults also patronise these joints.
If the adage, “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”, is something to go by, then one will argue that “breaking a bottle or two”, to put it in street parlance, after a hard day’S work is not a bad idea, but it appears the situation is going overboard and many have linked the spread of alcoholism to the poverty in the region.
Alcohol consumption is among the factors that contribute to poverty in the region and this trend needs to be changed. Apart from the local brew, pito, which many think is medicinal, most of the youth are heavily engaged in the consumption of hard liquor such as ”akpeteshie” and smoking of marijuana.
The Regional Coordinator of Psychiatry, Mr Peter Akagwire, in an interview reiterated the fact that substance abuse including excessive alcohol intake and smoking of marijuana is on the rise in the region but those engaged in the act did not seek assistance.
He added that family members were also not supportive in helping to seek assistance for addicted persons.
Standard of Education
The Upper East Regional Minister, Alhaji Limuna Mohammed-Muniru, at a recent meeting with members of the Christian Council of Ghana attributed the falling standards of education in the region to the high incidence of alcoholism among teachers.
According to him, alcoholism was ‘eating up’ most of the teachers, adding that “about 70 per cent of the teachers in this region are alcoholics. They do not even go to work. Even if they are in the classroom, they are drunk. How can you get somebody in this state to perform in the classroom and deliver the goods?” the regional minister quizzed.
Extreme poverty
Delivering a keynote address recently at a youth empowerment seminar in Bolgatanga, Rev. Eastwood Anaba identified alcoholism and two
Other factors -polygamy and idolatry – as the main factors that contributed to extreme underdevelopment of the Upper East Region.
He bemoaned the fact that the region is ranked as the poorest in Ghana, the same region is noted to be the number one region in terms of alcohol consumption. “Pito is brewed everywhere and akpeteshie flows incessantly. You do not get pito and akpeteshie free of charge. You spend money on it”, he said.
He opined that the Upper East Region was the richest, going by its resources and that if the alcoholics could change their lifestyles and habits and channel their resources in the right direction, the region could change the trend of its economic growth.
Effects
Excessive drinking of alcohol, health experts have warned could lead to brain impairment. This is because regular heavy drinking interferes with some essential components of the brain that are needed for good mental health.
On the other hand, high levels of alcohol could as well contribute to one’s feeling of depression and anxiety and makes stress harder to deal with.
Solution
Municipal and district assemblies provide communities with recreational facilities in order to disengage the youth from social vices such as alcoholism and marijuana.
Apart from regulating the siting of metal containers in the Bolgatanga Municipality as was indicated recently when some shops, including drinking spots without business operating licence were demolished by the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly, it should be possible for heavy taxes to be imposed on all alcoholic drinks as a way of discouraging alcoholism.
Again, as much as possible, health professionals should be well resourced to give intensive health education and counselling on drug and substance abuse to victims to help curb the problem.
Parents, teachers, religious leaders, chiefs and politicians must all come on board to help address the high consumption of alcohol in the region, particularly among the youth, for as the cliché goes, they are the future leaders.
By Benjamin Xornam Glover/Daily Graphic/Ghana