KICK IT OUT!

Reverend Deegbe Urges Ghanaians to Crusade Hard Against Hard Drug Use
in the Country

Politicians and Ghanaians in general have been called upon to put
behind their differences, and join forces to kick the hard drugs
completely from the country, before it brings the dignity of the
nation into irreparable dispute.

Rev. Fred Deegbe, the General Secretary of the Christian Council made
the appeal in an interview with the ADM last weekend.

He pleaded: "We have a lot of goodwill from the world, we do not need
this bad reputation for ourselves at this time".

He pointed out that the trafficking of cocaine in Ghana has been a
contributory factor to the perception of corruption the country is
grappling with.

"Drugs are linked with a lot of corruption" as dealers "bribe people
to get their way, use easy money to influence customs and public
officials, which leads to a corrupting effect on the country's system
of justice, custom, police, military and even politics."

He said Ghanaians have come to realize how bad cocaine is and the
current raging issue "is a wake up call for all of us. People see
politics in Ghana as party A or B; I think they should begin to see
this thing as a challenge that is facing us as a nation, because it
goes beyond the blame game".

Ghana, he lamented, "does not deserve that notorious reputation"

Rev. Deegbe said the issue transcends partisan politics and
politicizing the issue would trivialize the Georgina Woode
committee's work and would not help the country get to "the root of
the problem."

"For those who have power, they should use their power for us to
correct this. Let's move and look at the larger issue rather than
getting into this party politics", he said.

He remarked that whether you are in power or opposition, the drug
menace is capable of putting the whole country at risk.

"If anybody went outside this country, I don't think in the passport
it would show whether you are for party A or B. You would be seen as
a Ghanaian and would be treated as such, and if your country has a
bad reputation you would be treated as a Ghanaian or a person coming
from a country with a very bad reputation."

Rev. Fred Deegbe stated that drugs could cause people to have blurred
vision, metaphorically and in reality, which impairs their judgment
to decipher what is right and wrong and other moral considerations.

"Consumers become temporarily high and they do certain things they
would normally not want to do or say. The moral effect is dangerous,
they want to do anything they can to sustain the habit even if they
have to kill, rob and rape. These people would do anything to fuel
this habit and therefore we are all at risk"

For producers, he said they are after their money and are therefore
not concerned about the effect drugs have on people, society and the
nation as a whole.

He cautioned the media about irresponsible reporting but urged them
not to relent in their crusade against drug-related issues.

"The important thing for us is that the truth should come out for us
to know who are behind all of this, what was brought in, where did it
go, is some still in the system? So I would not attack the media for
what is happening, if only what they are doing would help us find the
truth and kick this habit out of this country".

Rev. Deegbe questioned the sources of money some politicians dish out
during campaigns. "We should ask them where they get their money from".

He was worried about how Ghanaian values "have been shifted."

Quoting a popular Ghanaian saying he concluded with these words: "We
should know that good name is better than riches. Whenever people are
going for riches by whatever means they should know that drug
trafficking is bad, it's use is addictive, destructive and we must
kick it out of Ghana".