Ghana has been highly commended by the United States Africa Command (Africom) for its commitment to the fight against drug trafficking.
Africom said the commitment had been demonstrated by the arrest of prominent people and the interdiction of some police officers purported to be involved in the drug trade, which needed to be admired and emulated by other countries.
It said the ability of the police in the Central Region and immigration service staff to resist enticement from alleged traffickers and effecting their arrest in the recent past had sent a clear signal to the drug barons that they were not welcome in Ghana.
Speaking to journalists on tour of the Africom Headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, Ms Candace Ross, Counter Narcotics Officer, said the dealers of the prohibited drugs were not only interested in using countries in the West African sub-region as a transit point, but were also creating large drug user groups in them.
She said the sad aspect was that the kind of drugs that the new user groups, mostly the young people, dealt in were the cheap and addictive crack-drugs, which were much more dangerous than real cocaine.
“We at Africom are very happy that Ghana is sending the right signals to the outside world that it is committed to the fight against the practice,” she said.
She said trafficking or using a country as a transit point was just one of the problems, but the most serious part was that the users ended up visiting pain on innocent members of society.
“They create instability and social unrest,” Ms Ross said.
Ms Ross said everything possible had to be done to ensure that usage and trafficking of narcotic drugs were made less attractive to the people before life was made unbearable for society.
Africom, she said, would ensure that the local people were educated on the features of various narcotic drugs and the implications of getting involved in the act of trafficking.
“The drug dealers are backed by huge funding and it is very easy to get people to carry their trade through. Therefore, it is very important to educate the people to know the implications,” she said.
The Programme Officer for West Africa/Gulf of Guinea Region Counter Narcotics-Terrorism/Law Enforcement, Mr Garnard W. Burnside, said governmental commitment to the drug war was very important.
He said the crack-drug or the unrefined drug was more addictive and users in the West African/Gulf of Guinea region would soon start asking for the real one, which was more expensive.
Mr Burnside said Africom had done a lot with their Ghanaian counterparts and other relevant institutions, since the fight against drug was a global issue.
Asked if they provided support in the areas of training to help Ghana to be in control of the situation locally, he said they tried to help as and when the request was made and that there were collaborations.
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