KEY POINTS
- NACOC warns of marijuana tea bags in schools.
- Teenagers increasingly caught with disguised cannabis.
- Tramadol crackdown shuts eight chemist shops nationwide.
Ghana’s Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) has raised alarm that drug peddlers now disguise marijuana as tea bags and smuggle it into schools to lure teenagers into abuse.
Alexander Twum-Barimah, the commission’s deputy director-general, said officials recently caught a first-year student at a senior high school in the Eastern Region with one of the packages hidden in his bag.
Marijuana tea bags reach senior high schools
“This form one student had a wee tea bag among his belongings,” Twum-Barimah told Woezor TV in an interview aired Sunday. He warned that the practice has spread beyond senior high schools, with reports now emerging of use in basic schools.
He cited a recent case of a 16-year-old boy found carrying two sticks of marijuana, stressing that the growing number of minors involved reflects a worrying shift in Ghana’s drug landscape.
NACOC pushes local response to drug spread
According to Twum-Barimah, district assemblies have requested the establishment of NACOC offices to respond to the surge in abuse. The agency has so far opened branches in Asamankese, Adansi Municipality, and Ashanti Akim District.
“We have a leadership determined to do what is right. Even if we cannot eradicate drug use completely, we will bring it to the barest minimum,” he said, referring to the commission’s director, Brigadier General Mantey.
Tramadol clampdown adds to NACOC actions
Beyond marijuana, NACOC has also shut down six drug stores and two pharmacies for illegally selling high-dose tramadol.
Twum-Barimah said tramadol use is allowed but prescriptions must stay within 50mg to 100mg.
He warned that dosages above 100mg are prohibited and said abuse of the painkiller continues to threaten public health.
He added that drug impairment increasingly drives reckless behaviour on Ghana’s roads and recalled a motorcyclist, suspected to be high, who crashed into his vehicle while speeding.
