Ghana, transit point for cocaine and heroin - Narcotics report

The 2000 annual report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has said Ghana is increasingly being used as a transit point for the smuggling of cocaine and heroin.

The 79-page document launched in Accra on Wednesday by the Minister of the Interior, Alhaji Malik Al-Hassan Yakubu, said this trend is partly the result of improved interdiction efforts in Nigeria.

The report said the abuse of drugs, especially psychotropic substances, appears to be on the rise in most African countries. "The number of women and children abusing drugs is increasing and the age of people turning to drugs for the first time is falling," the report said.

It said in 1999, seizure of cannabis, heroin and psychotropic substances increased significantly in Africa, as compared with 1998.

The seizures of cocaine, however, declined, it said, but gave no figures. Alhaji Yakubu said the fact that Ghana has become a major transit point, "is a disturbing trend that should engage the attention of all the security agencies involved in interdiction."

He urged the security agencies and the drug controlling bodies to bear in mind that the cultivators of drugs, the trafficker and the user are constantly finding ways to beat the law by designing new methods in their trades. "We can, therefore, live up to our responsibility if we regularly review our modus operandi and evaluate results."

Alhaji Yakubu said: "No one should be allowed to benefit from drugs, considering its devastating effects on individuals and society at large." He pledged government's commitment to the fight against drugs saying: "we would play our positive part."