The immediate target of their anger is the assembly man in the area who they blame for allowing the church to start the rehab centre.

According to them, business has gone so low for the past two to three months following the decision of the assembly man and some other opinion leaders at the site to permit the Good News Evangelical Mission International Church to rehabilitate some of their customers.

The drug pushers, who allegedly deal in cocaine, heroine and marijuana among other drugs, said if nothing was done about the immediate return of their customers (the addicts) they could be totally out of business which could also spell disaster for the residents.

Mr Issah Alhassan, the assembly man of the area, made this disclosure to the Ghana News Agency when he visited the over 150 men and women, who were undergoing rehabilitation at the Kodeabe Voluntary Training Centre in the Greater Accra Region.

He said Tema Community One Site Two has been widely noted for harbouring drug dealers, who carry out their illegal business without any fear of being arrested or prosecuted. This, he explained, was due to the fact that even when the criminals are arrested, they are only asked to pay some amount of money.

"The barons quickly come to their aid within a short time. Sometimes in a matter of hours they are back to their base,” he said, adding: "Even those who are put before the courts come back as the cases are adjourned time and again until those following it finally lose interest.

Addressing the inmates under-going rehabilitation, Mr Alhassan congratulated them for accepting the challenge to overcome the abuse of hard drugs. Another effect of the rehabilitation is the decrease in armed robberies and other social vices in the area.

He recalled that often, some of the drug addicts are molested by their suppliers for not paying for the drug taken on credit. He mentioned a particular instance when one of them was beaten up with a belt as he (assembly man) got to the scene. When he enquired what was happening, the drug pusher quickly answered that the victim had stolen an item.

"But an eyewitness whispered to me that it was a lie and that the one being beaten had taken some drugs on credit and had refused to pay for it."

He encouraged them to desist completely from the use of drugs saying; "one way you can keep away from it would be that you do not return to your ghettos at Site Two.

"Cut off your friendship with your old friends who could possibly lure you back to the use of the illicit drugs."

Also at the training centre to interact with the inmates were Dr Akwasi Osei, Acting Chief Psychiatrist of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital and his team, who could not hide their excitement at the good work being done by the Good News Evangelical Mission International Church.

He said since prevention was better than cure, it was a timely decision taken to assist the drug addicts before their situations degenerate into mental illness.

Educating the addicts on the negative effects of drug abuse, the Chief Psychiatrist revealed that apart from the most obvious evidence of mental illness, men who were drug addicts could have difficulty in impregnating women as their sperms were killed by the toxins in the drugs. The women on the other hand had the tendency of giving birth to mentally retarded children.

Dr Osei warned the inmates that their lifestyles could affect even their grandchildren, explaining that it had been empirically proven that grandparents who were drug addicts had some of their generations taking after them. With an empathetic tone, the chief psychiatrist said: "Some of you are here due to peer pressure or misinformation. You even wish to stop but that has become difficult. This was due to the fact that the drugs offer some so called satisfaction. This satisfaction could only be reached when the doses were increased with time.

"The continuous intake of drugs in larger quantities results in the addicts hearing and dancing to non-existing music and landing them at the psychiatric hospital, eventually. He gave them the assurance that they were not the only people in the situation but that there were others in other parts of the country and even worldwide who had come out from drug addiction and that they too with determination and God's assistance could do the same.”


Source: GNA