Frontliners Against Illicit Drugs (FAID) wishes to express its deepest worry on the recent situation of illicit drugs in the country per the banner headline of the Daily Graphic publication on Wednesday, September 14, 2011-‘DRUGS IN STUDENTS’ HOSTEL’. This leaves us with the most tormenting thoughts; what is the future of mother Ghana, if her future leaders, the youth are the very ones involved in illicit drugs trade and usage on their campuses?

Narcotic drugs weaken one’s nervous system and have the tendency to permanently alter the human system, once a person gets involved in them. The effects of narcotic drugs on an individual and the society as a whole cannot be estimated; especially the youth who are the hopes and aspirations of every society. Narcotic drug is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality. It is in this regard that we at FAID think that the Daily Graphic publication should be a source of worry to every Ghanaian.

Students over the years have been living on the ignorance that narcotic substances make them sharp and active. FAID wishes to state emphatically that available facts and statistics point to the contrary and would like to call on our hardworking students to discard that mind set. Most often than not the intake of the illicit drugs, causes loss of memory, cancers, madness and other mentally related complications. We agree with Jesse Jackson that ‘Today’s students can put dope in their veins or hope in their brains. If they can conceive it and believe it, they can achieve it. They must know it is not their aptitude but their attitude that will determine their altitude’.

FAID is of the view that this revelation could be a tip of the iceberg of what is happening in our campuses across the country, but impressed about the efforts of the Ghana Police Service in apprehending the said students which culminated in detecting those substances in their hostel and would like to urge them to continue with their good works.

We are by this statement calling on our educational authorities and government to as a matter of priority put in place workable mechanisms to control this unfortunate situation of students using our educational institutions as training grounds for narcotic drug trade and usage.

We also wish to call on parents and guardians and the nation as a whole, to support the authorities, the Police, civil society groups and other agencies involved in the fight against illicit drugs, especially among the youth to address the problem.

It is our firm conviction that if we all get on board to painstakingly fight this illicit drug canker, we would put an end to this nerve-racking issue of students falling to ignorance and socially constructed lies that narcotic drugs can aide them in their studies and that the only way to become rich is to trade in narcotic drugs.

ABUKARI RIDWAN
COORDINATOR-FRONTLINERS AGAINST ILLICIT DRUGS (FAID)
TEL:0268503820
ridwan.abukari@yahoo.com