By Mildred Siabi-Mensah
Takoradi, June 02, GNA – The Public Health Directorate of the Western Regional Health Service has called on the youth to stay away from tobacco and other related drugs to have a better future.
Dr Gifty Amugi, the Deputy Director, Public Health added that the country’s future would thrive on a productive, critical-minded youth and thus the need to shun such drugs that have the potential to alter their bright future.
“We can’t afford to lose all these productive segments of our population to drugs, as young and budding individuals, what you need for proper growth and development is balanced food and not tobacco or any other substances”, Dr Amugi told the Ghana News Agency in an interview to mark World No Tobacco Day.
The World No Tobacco Day is an annual event created by the member states of the World Health Organization in 1987 to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable deaths and diseases it causes.
Since then, this day has been celebrated on the 31st of May every year as a moment to raise awareness of the harmful effects of tobacco use.
This year’s theme “Grow Food, not Tobacco” called on farmers in the tobacco business to turn their attention to growing other good crops to help in food security across the globe. In Ghana, this could be extended to the cultivation of other herbs such as marijuana which can be potentially abused and have health consequences.
The Deputy Director, Public Health said the theme would also serve as a campaign message aimed at creating awareness about alternative crop production and marketing opportunities for tobacco farmers adding, “Farmers are to grow sustainable and nutritious crops thereby helping to reduce the global food crisis and improving the nutritional health of our people.”
Currently, global food insecurity affects millions of people particularly those in low-income and least-developed countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
This food insecurity situation is driven by certain factors including conflicts and wars, the impact of climate change and pandemics such as COVID-19, bird flu, and swine flu.
She said the choice of crops such as the growing of tobacco and marijuana had a significant impact on food production and availability and has been identified as a structural cause to increase food insecurity globally.
Figures from the WHO estimated that about 3.5 million hectares of land were converted for tobacco growing each year across the globe while contributing to the deforestation of about 200,000 hectares of land a year.
Across the country, there would be a series of Social and Behaviour Change Communication messages on various platforms about the negative effects of tobacco usage.
GNA