Partisanship And Illegal Drugs

NACOB Boss, Yaw Akrasi Sarpong

Once again, a Ghanaian has been arrested at a foreign airport with drugs and the blame game has started. Our two major political parties have gone into over-drive, trying to prove each other's links to drugs. The NPP can argue that they are tying Nayeli to the NDC because Amoateng and others were tied unfairly to them and the NDC can make the same argument. It does not matter which party is on which side. Both parties are guilty. Like the proverbial kettle calling the tea-pot black, when the two parties indulge in this name-calling, all they do is to persuade the public that both parties guilty.

The idea that when an individual decides to use or sell drugs, a party can and should be blamed for it is patently stupid. It would be the equivalent of blaming the church of Hon. Amoateng or Ms. Ametefe for their drug crimes—which will be absurd.

While they are focusing on the next election instead of the next generation on the drug front, gargantuan problems are being ignored. Speaking at the launch of the annual drug report on Ghana recently, NACOB boss Akrasi Sarpong said, “Marijuana continues to be the greatest challenge. Prevalence usage cuts across social classes. It cuts all sectors of society. I will not be surprised if some guys in the media use marijuana. I will not be surprised if some people at NACOB use narcotics.

I will not be surprised if some lecturers use narcotics.” He went on to also sound the alarm on the large volumes of Ephedrine being imported into the country. Lest one assumes that these problems just started, the US State department said in a report in 2006 that “Ghana is increasingly a transit point for illegal drugs, particularly cocaine from South America and heroine from South East Asia.” It identified Europe as the main destination.

Today, as a physician and a Ghanaian patriot, I urge our political leaders to stop the pointless blame games and tackle the drug issue.

As the fictional American President in “THE DRUG INVASION OF WEST AFRICA”, Gordon Clay, pointedly asked his audience in Brussels, “When we have addicts roaming the streets of places like Abuja, Accra, Asuncion, Cape Dedamia, Kabul, Kinshasa and Ouagadougou, where governments lack the resources to perform even basic tests, who will pay for detoxification programs for addicts?”

“ When the number of motor vehicle accidents in Africa, which is already the highest per capita in the world starts to sky-rocket due to all the addicts behind the wheels, who will pay the costs?”

These are the questions that should engage our political parties—not aimless name-calling. Of course, there can be legitimate debate over differences regarding drug policies and how they solve or do not solve the drug problem. For instance, following reports of the arrest of Ms. Ametefe, the BNI interrogated Citi fm's Samuel Atta Mensah and “Graphic” editor, Ransford Tetteh, in a brazen act that was clearly meant to intimidate the media. Their interrogation should be condemned in the strongest terms.

President Mahama's attempt to justify the BNI's conduct only made a bad situation worse. If the two media houses had erred in reporting that Ms Ametefe had a diplomatic passport and the government had irrefutable proof that she did not, what was the point in summoning the two editors if not intimidation? Why did the government not put out the truth and then file a complaint with the Media Commission?

Regardless of our differences over drug policy, it is unacceptable to leap to the conclusion that one party or the other supports drugs.

Here are some steps our parties, through Parliament with the executive in the lead, must consider:

First, we must strengthen laws on drug trafficking and money-laundering.

Second, we must make the funding of our politics more transparent and accountable. Drug dealers with lots of money and politicians needing a lot of money to campaign and sometimes to buy elections are like Adam and Eve and forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden--- they will find each other.

Third, we must seriously consider public financing of our campaigns so that good men and women who want to succeed in politics will not be compelled to accept bad money in order to succeed.

Finally, our politicians cannot solve this problem by themselves. Religious and moral leaders must lead us in a crusade to distinguish honest wealth from tainted wealth. A society that celebrates wealth regardless of how it is made will ultimately destroy itself.

Let us move forward together.

Arthur Kobina Kennedy