Some Indian hemp smokers going through rehabilitation have said they acquitted the habit when they were in senior high schools (SHSs).

They told the GNA in interviews that many SHSs served as breeding places for “wee” smokers and appealed to school authorities to bring the situation under control.

They are among some 58 drugs addicts, commercial sex workers and alcoholics going through rehabilitation at the Gethsemane Prayer Center at Jejemereja in the Jaman North District.

Some of them said they were introduced to the drug at the SHSs when their senior colleagues mixed the stuff with “gari and shito” for unsuspecting juniors.

“They will gradually lure you into the drug and before you realize you have become addicted to it”, Mr Nicholas Kwasi Boah, a 32-year-old teacher going through rehabilitation at the center, said.

Mr Boah, who teaches at the Drobo D/A local school and now a pastor at the prayer center, said many young boys and girls in the area were addicted to the drug.

Samuel Nti, a 22-year-old SHS leaver, said he had smoked the stuff for more than nine years and alleged that “wee” smoking and peddling was rife in communities in the district and appealed to the police to clampdown on dealers.

Prophet Daniel Kwame Ansu, Director of the Gethsemane Prayer Center, appealed to the general public to support the center with food and clothing.