According to him, government in its quest to make Ghana unfavorable, a high-risk and a low value territory for key dealers, had "given NACOB the clearance to increase its staff strength more than four-fold and fight the menace."
The minister made these comments in a speech read on his behalf by the Director of Human Resources at the Ministry of Interior, during the 45th annual report launch of the International Narcotics Board (INCB) at the headquarters of the Narcotics Control Board in Accra on Tuesday.
"In 2012 and 2013 government gave approval for NACOB to increase their staff strength from about one hundred and twenty to about five hundred and sixty," he added.
According to him, "government has approved that the schedule to the PNDC law 236 be amended to include some new synthetic psychoatic substance and other psychotropic substance such as methamphetamine and its derivatives."
Mr Ahwoi observed that, " fighting drug trafficking does not require a singular effort but rather collective responsibility," adding that tackling the problem should be through simultaneous actions on all fronts.
He said the report, "is on the economic consequences of drug abuse and presents evidence on the extent of economic and social cost of drug abuse in several areas such as health, public safety, crime, productivity and governance."
The Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), Yaw Akrasi-Sarpong in a remark expressed worries about the increasing rate of distribution and use of marijuana in Ghana.
This is a major problem facing the Board, he said, adding that there is a thriving market for the Ghanaian marijuana.
Mr Akrasi Sarpong said drugs such as cocaine and heroin was currently not as threatening to the country as marijuana.
Touching on the Report he said, its comments on precursor chemicals and their control were critically to Ghana.
He said the true value of the report lies not only in the quality of the analysis made but in the practical guidance it offers to government authorities in dealing with the issues of chemical control.
He said Ghana should be judged by the extent to which it would take the recommendations seriously next year.
Naval Captain Baffuor Assasie-Gyimah (Rtd), Chairman of the Governing Board of Ghana's Narcotics Control Board, in a remark assured that NACOB would analyse the recommendations of the report and make the necessary policy recommendation to government with the view to qualitatively improve Ghana's response.
Source: ISD (Gilbert Ankrah)
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