The Narcotics Control Board [NACOB] has submitted to the Attorney General’s department, a draft law which seeks to grant NACOB autonomy from its parent Ministry, the Interior Ministry. Speaking on the status of narcotic drugs control in the country on Multi TV’s current affairs program PM EXPRESS, the head of Communications at NACOB, Francis Opoku Amoah explained that even though the Board was doing its best to control the trafficking and use of illicit drugs in the country, it still faced lots of challenges most of them being financial and logistical constraints. He attributed the financial constraints to the inability of NACOB to generate funds internally. Thus to overcome these problems, Mr. Amoah said “the current board [of NACOB] has drafted a law which is currently at the AG’s office. What that law seeks to do, if it’s approved, is to give NACOB the autonomy we pray for because at the moment we’re under the Ministry of Interior and what happens is that you hardly get your budgetary allocation, and therefore we believe that if we’re given autonomy, we can have a lot of resources we can work with.” “We’re looking at the law in terms of confiscation because as the law stands now, if you arrest somebody, the onus is on the Narcotics Control Board to prove that the property that that person has was acquired through drug dealings but now what they’re looking at in the draft law is that soon as you’re convicted then you will have to proof to the Narcotics Control Board and to Ghana that the monies you have acquired, the properties you have, you did not acquire them through drugs”, he explained. Mr. Amoah was optimistic that when the draft law is passed, it will boost the Board’s chances of generating funds for its operations. “I believe that if we’re able to do that then we’ll be able to sell some of these properties and we’ll be able to retain some percentage which we can use in our operations and will enhance the fight against the menace.” “It’s something that the current board is seriously doing with the board chairman, Captain Asaase Gyimah who is a legal practitioner as well. So we’re hoping and praying that it will not stay long at the tables of the AGs and it will move on quickly so we can have the autonomy we pray for”. He added “I believe that if that law is approved it’s going to give us the power to carry arms because we know that in certain parts of Africa, in Nigeria and other places, the Narcotics Control over there, they are armed and therefore we’re hoping that when it is passed all these things will help us make sure that the fight on the drug menace is upped.” Story by Nii Akrofi Smart Abbey/Multi TV/Ghana