By Muyid Deen Suleman
Ahinsan (Ash), July 12, GNA – About 14 drug addicts in Ahinsan and its environs in the Asokwa Municipality, have offered to undergo rehabilitation after receiving counselling from officials of the Narcotics Control Commission.
According to some of them, they had been rejected by their families and friends as a result of drugs and it was time they gave up drugs and undergo the processes to reintegrate themselves in their communities and live a normal life.
The Ashanti Regional Office of the Narcotics Control Commission in collaboration with FRHAH Rehabilitation Centre in Kumasi, on Wednesday July 10, 2024, visited some ‘ghettos’ at Ahinsan, where the addicts stayed and offered free counseling section for them.
The two-hour counseling was enough to convince about 14 of the persons suffering from substance use disorders to agree to be taken to the rehabilitation home for treatment and care.
Mr Samuel Yeboah, Ashanti Regional Commander of Narcotics Control Commission, speaking to the Ghana News Agency after the exercise, said it was the duty of the Commission to regularly visit people suffering from substance abuse and drug related challenges and give them counselling.
According to him, it had been a routine operation of the Commission to give these persons information and counselling sessions aimed at changing the lifestyle of drug addicts.
He said in 2021 and 2023, the Commission was able to convince few of them and they were currently doing well at various rehabilitation centres.
The difficulty, he said, had been how to integrate them into their families after their discharge from the rehabilitation centres.
Mr Ken Hammond, Manager of the FRHAH Rehabilitation Centre, said it was the duty of all meaning citizens to help and ensure that drug addicts were rehabilitated and integrated fully into society.
He said currently the Centre had over 100 inmates undergoing rehabilitation and called on philanthropists and benevolent organizations to support it work in catering for them.
The Commission made some donations to support the rehabilitation centre by providing them with toiletries, bags of rice, water, and other assorted items.
GNA