A former Director of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) K.B. Quantson says institutional failure is partly to blame for the recurrent controversial losses of substances in the custody of the security institutions. He said after the nation wasted so much resources in investigating past cases such as the MV Benjamin cocaine saga, the case came to naught due to the ineptitude of the institutions involved. Mr Quantson was speaking on the fallouts of the recent mysterious cocaine-turned-baking soda controversy which is being investigated by two institutions of state – a committee set up by the Chief Justice, and the bureau of National Investigations. During Friday’s hearing of the Chief Justice’s committee, lawyers for a court clerk suggested that the state attorney who tried the case, Stella Arhin, wanted to compromise a lab officer who conducted the second test which proved the substance was not cocaine. The lawyers believe the state attorney’s decision to make the lab officer testify in chambers was because she did not want the world to know the truth about the substance. But the state attorney vehemently refuted the suggestion, stressing her decision was free from malice. A clearly livid former head of the NACOB told Joy News’ Dzifa Bampoh that if the law enforcement agencies are not streamlined, the country will continue to fail in the war against the narco-trade. He explained that in law enforcement, “…if you don’t demonstrate a consistent robust attitude,...That massive exercise that brought shame on us internationally, we have not had the political will to get to the bottom of the matter. Up till now, the case is hanging so what do you expect?” He said if these wrongdoings were thoroughly investigated and the outcome made public, the state would “entrench the deterrent factor, which is a very important issue in law enforcement.” He said until the right thing is done the culture of impunity will continue because people will still believe that they can steal and get away with it. Mr Quantson said there is a need for highly sophisticated labs for testing narcotic drugs but if any headway will be made, the people who operate these labs must be made aware that they cannot get away with any criminal activity. “In the drug industry corruption is a very massive component. In fact the industry thrives on corruption.” He said the drug war is a never-ending; thus there is a need to ensure that everyone related to it can be brought to book. He said such occurrences are opportunities for the state to carry out extensive investigations in order to identify the loopholes in the system and guide the institutions in future cases.