Koforidua, Aug 9, GNA - Dr Eugene Dordoye, a psychiatrist with the Ghana Health Service (GHS), has suggested that alcohol should be declared a public health hazard.

He said alcohol intake was resulting in many diseases claiming lives but because alcohol was not a national health issue its related diseases were not being measured.

Dr Dordoye, who spoke to the GNA after addressing a five- day Youth Alive Camp in Koforidua, said alcohol effects were measured by the psychiatric hospitals because of its known effects on mental health.

Dr Dordoye said the age for the onset of drug usage was very crucial to health because research had established that the brain was not matured for alcohol and tobacco until the age of 25.

He urged the participants at the camp who were students drawn from some second cycle institutions in the region to stay away from drugs because it had nothing to offer them in their education but rather had the potential to destroy their intelligence.

Dr Dordoye, a member of Hopeful Way Foundation, a non- governmental organization aimed at educating the youth against drugs, said apart from the health implications, the use of drugs among the youth posed a security threat since 99 percent of sexual and violent crimes could be associated with alcohol and other drugs.

The four-day camp was organized by Monsignor Bobby Benson, the Director of the Mathew 25 House, an HIV and AIDS centre in Koforidua, to educate the youth on the realities of drugs, HIV and AIDS and other social issues.

Monsignor Benson said he felt the need to start the programme to instill good societal behavior in the youth to ensure that they stayed away from behaviour that could lead to the contraction of HIV and AIDS or drug addiction.