By Christopher Tetteh
Koforidua, (Ahafo), May 28, GNA – Nana Yaw Nkrumah, a member of the Duayaw-Nkwanta Traditional Council in the Tano North Municipality of the Ahafo Region has called for collective efforts to tackle substance abuse and peddling among the youth in the area.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Koforidua, near Duayaw-Nkwanta, Nana Nkrumah, the Caretaker of the Bredi Stool Land of the traditional council, said the situation was becoming alarming, with many of the young turning into drug addicts.
He said the rate at which many of the young people were abusing tramadol, as well as alcoholism, required urgent attention, attributing the problem partly to social media and peer influences.
Nana Nkrumah said the traditional council was undertaking stakeholder engagements, calling for intensified public education on the dangers of substance abuse in schools, churches and public gatherings.
He urged families to also take the responsibility in shaping the future of their children, and asked security services in the area to intensify patrols in the area to clamp down on the peddlers.
Reacting, Miss Gifty Brany, a nurse in-charge of the Mental Health Unit at the Sunyani Municipal Hospital, told the GNA that many of the cases of mental health reported at the unit were related to substance abuse and alcoholism.
“We have been recording a lot of cases relating to drug abuse,” she stated, and urged authorities to do something to bring the situation under control.
Ms Brany also called on security agencies to do more, identify and disband the illicit drugs peddling joints in the Sunyani Municipality.
GNA
Edited by Dennis Peprah/Benjamin Mensah