Don't legalise marijuana

So, where do we go from legalising marijuana? We begin to detect the benefits of cocaine and heroin; right? Oh, coke, if you sniff or inject, it make you feel higher than you ever did and better than you’ll ever be… Such claims will surely be made. If that doesn’t convince many, at least the fact that cocaine is big-time money will lure us into allowing our only country to be reduced into a transit zone for export of cocaine. Heroin wouldn’t have to wait; she will come with the brother – cocaine.

Can’t beat them…

There are those who contend that because ganja is freely smoked in the streets these days, there is no point in not decriminalising it. There we go again: so-called turkey tails (chofi) importation, sale and consumption are illegal here; but, because people sell or buy chofi in broad-daylight, let’s legalise it. Using motorbikes to run commercial transport is illegal, but most police MTTD staff themselves own okadas and rickety buses; because you cannot stop okada, let’s officially approve of it.

There are a few who contrast the Ghanaian situation with some European countries’. They say, unlike elsewhere, you have no regulation on alcohol purchase and consumption; and, people can booze as much as they want: the effect is no different from using marijuana. Instead of regulating the abuse of alcoholic beverages to save the millions of our potential labour force wasting away on hard liquor, these theorists prefer the bandwagon approach.

If you supposedly can’t beat them, why not join ‘em? Instead of rescuing the throngs of students destroying their future by indulging in drug abuse, if you can’t (supposedly) beat them join them.

Way out not way back

These moves to get marijuana decriminalised are counterproductive, really. This nation has spent tens of millions of Cedis fighting the abuse of tobacco – ordinary cigarettes. Every 31st day of May, we observe national and global Anti-tobacco Day across this country. Why are some of us craving for the legalisation of the much stronger, more dangerous weed called wee in this country?

There are those who assert that personally, they won’t engage in same-sex for anything, but, want to accord those who like to engage in that abomination the right to go ahead. Some decently married persons even go to the extent of appearing in court to stoutly defend those charged with same-sex-related offences. That is baffling; isn’t it? Is it about the money? Is it civilisation? Democracy? Have we ceased having values?

The idea of decriminalising ganja in Ghana is actually not new; it is recurrent. The first time it received major public discussion was the turbulent days of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), when international isolation, unfavourable weather and ill-considered economic measures rendered this county totally broke. Some Third World countries were cited as shining examples of wee growers and exporters that Ghana must emulate.

Somehow, the revolutionary idea fizzled out during that revolutionary era. The next time I heard of it a former cadre, Yaw Akrasi-Sarpong, was at the helm of affairs at the Narcotics Control Board. The current one, to me, comes from an unlikely address: a longtime pal and someone I have admired so much in my journalism and public service career: Professor Alex Dodoo, who is now the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA). That is an unpleasant surprise!

Alex and all proponents of the legalisation of marijuana, there certainly must be some benefits; at least, seeming advantages. But that is the reality of life: almost every single thing on the surface of the earth is useful in one way or another. Of course, there’s nothing that has no downsides. It is the contention of Ghana Today that the risks involved in thrusting the floodgates open for wee will far outweigh the supposed benefits. Just don’t push it!

Problem entrenchment

In or about 2007, a man was arrested in the Bono-Ahafo Region who had developed a wee plantation and factory in which he was growing and processing marijuana for export.

He had tens of employees and an admirable business size. Not much was heard of the case thereafter. Last year, the Asante Regional Police Command was reported to have busted the trafficking of a hundred sacks and tens of slabs of the weed from Sene in the Bono-Ahafo Region heading for Kumasi in the Asante Region. Such areas of the Eastern Region as Asesewa, Kwaabeng and the Afram Plains are infamous for the large-scale growing of the illicit weed.

Indeed, the Volta, Northern, almost all the other regions in this country have districts notorious for the cultivation of the contraband. While the export of the drug is worrying because it is illegal and scandalous; the internal consumption is more dangerous and terrifying. Today, teenagers smoke wee in the streets, at the pubs, on school compounds and at the beaches and homes.

Some adults and parents commit the crime and lack the moral courage to curb their children’s imitation. The violence, widespread flouting of law and order and the near anarchy in our society today can be partly blamed on the mass consumption of alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and heroin.

In case the authorities are unaware; the recent past escalated student riots, destruction of school buildings, police stations and palaces; the hundreds of mental cases walking the city and town streets are drug cases. While they may not have been driven into illegal mining by the drug, almost every galamsey digger is a drug addict.

Can it be curbed?

And, in case government knows and it is as worried as it should be by it; then our regimes have all failed to tackle the marijuana menace the way they should have. All the weed is produced here in Ghana; not imported like cocaine and heroin are.

They plant them in the bush, often on farms on which they have peppers, tomatoes, cereals, sugarcanes or the like growing. Survey the farms regularly to detect and arrest the situation at the root, to cut the source to the buyers and consumers. How?? Doesn’t the government have Agriculture Extension Service Frontline Staff who are expected to be visiting every farmer regularly to help them do legitimate and productive farming? Sure that is what government is supposed to have.

Let government ensure that they are – indeed – there and working and reporting those doing such illegal farming as the cultivation of wee. Same extension officers can – and should – be used to offer repented criminals alternative ventures.

The assemblyman or woman, the community opinion leader, chief, community watch committee and the police should all be made to collaborate to fight the canker of wee-growing, distribution and consumption. This is not rocket science; it is vigilance and responsibility; period.

Peer pressure, ignorance, deceit, cultural invasion heightened by advancement in information communication technology mean that, today, good parental control and school-setting training are under serious threat and limitation. Let us regulate the movies our kids and other youth are exposed to in the name of globalisation.

Let parents, guardians and teachers take up the challenge to do more to guard our future leaders against the destruction of drug abuse. Let us use the mosque, the shrine and the church less and less for the preaching of prosperity, visa-acquisition and marriage grabbing so to find time and space to groom our children into worthy future leaders.

Let us use good children, students and youth leaders as effective agents of change to save the only resource Ghana now has: her human capital.

Can Wee Make People Mad?

If we do not move, can we lose the battle against wee and other hard drugs? Yes. Is wee so destructive? Yes. Is it true that wee can make people mad? Our bold answer is YES! And is the way out legalising the drug? Certainly not; the way out is not the way back. Have a fruitful weekend.