The Ashanti Regional Health Directorate is alarmed over the sharp rise in synthetic drug abuse across the region.

Regional Health Director, Dr. Fred Adomako-Boateng, revealed substances such as cannabis and alcohol now account for over 55% of all substance-induced psychiatric admissions in Kumasi and neighbouring districts.

He revealed prevalence and incidence of drug use have overwhelmed regional healthcare facilities, resulting in increasingly high psychiatric numbers.

The health authorities are worried the region is faced with an influx of "Kush" and other chemical mixtures.

This development, Dr. Adomako-Boateng says, is evident in the current situation where emergency rooms in the Ashanti region have seen a 30% increase in acute psychosis cases linked directly to these cheap synthetic mixtures over the past 12 months.

“It's a local crisis actually. The prevalence and incidence in Ashanti region shows that we are increasingly having high psychiatric numbers in our facility, and community surveillance paints a worrying picture of the situation.” he said.

Ashanti regional health director, Dr Adomako-Boateng, observed the global drug challenge is fundamentally shifting from traditional plant-based cultivation, such as cannabis, coca, and opium poppy, to synthetic manufacturing.

This transformation, he observed, is supported and aided by digital illicit marketplaces, complex trafficking networks, and modern digital payment systems, which allow peddlers to bypass highly sophisticated traditional borders.

According to Dr Adomako-Boateng, this shift is manifesting in lethal ways, where there is rising popularity of tramadol, commonly known as "tramol"; methamphetamine analogues; and chemically adulterated shisha in Ghana.

He was speaking at a commemorative event for World Drug Day in Kumasi on Friday

“Now, if we want to look at the persistent issues: plant cultivation. Traditionally, crops like cannabis, coca, and opium poppy continue to sustain widespread illicit economies.” He said.

“When we talk about the challenges that we are facing when it comes to fighting against this drug menace is the issues that we were we were having, especially the plant-based drugs that people were abusing, is still being abused—the opioid and all the coca that we were abusing. So, you see, that's the persistent issue.” Dr. Adomako-Boateng added.

Dr. Adomako-Boateng is urging the security and regulatory agencies, including the Food and Drugs Authority, to intensify surveillance on over-the-counter sales of controlled medications and dismantle local distribution networks.

“The other issue that is also persistent is also the social stigmatization. So, apart from this plant-based, now we have a lot of synthetic drug that and they are even more potent than the traditional plant-based one. You So, you one that we know is  the famous uh tramadol that pop- popularly known as the tramol one. We know we have also the fentanyl one, and then we have the meth analogs. These are newly synthetic ones, very potent, and that's the new challenge that we have. On top of this new challenge is the way that these drug can be acquired, bypassing the traditional way of getting them."

His call comes as the IGP’s special team, in collaboration with the Ashanti Regional Police Command, arrests key suspects and seizes a large cache of narcotics in a crackdown on illicit drug gangs.