Statistics from the Narcotics Control Board, NACOB, show that about fifty thousand people, particularly the youth in Ghana, abuse substances and 70 percent of the cases result in mental illness.
The statistics further indicate that the youth from Junior and Senior High Schools are mostly at risk of drug abuse.
It is in line with this, that a Panel Discussion was held at the St. Thomas Aquinas Senior High School in Accra, to educate students on the impact of substance abuse on their health and future.
Health experts explain that Drug Abuse should not be limited to the intake of hard drugs. Excessive or less intake of prescription medication, they say, is also drug abuse.
The issue of Drug Abuse among the youth in Ghana today is assuming alarming proportions that many fear the country’s future may be jeopardised.
The 2007 World report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes indicate that twenty one point five percent of Ghanaians aged 15 to 64, smoke marijuana.
Director of the Ghana Education Service, La- Dade Kotopon Municipality, Mrs Bernice Addae, urged students to be ambassadors against drug abuse.
A Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Samuel Agyei Wiafe, explained the differences between mental health and mental illness.
Executive Secretary of Mindfreedom Ghana, Dan Taylor, emphasised that substance abuse is real and urged parents to be on the lookout for abnormal signs and behaviours in their children.
About two hundred and forty students from St. Thomas Aquinas, Labone, Armed Forces and La Presbyterian Senior High Schools, benefited from the education forum against drug abuse, put together by MindFreedom Ghana and the Human Rights Advocacy Centre.