MARIJUANA CAN'T CURE ASTHMA -- COUNSELOR

The Eastern Regional Guidance and Counselor of the Ghana Education
Service (GES), Mr Baah Ntiri, has said there was no clinical proof
that marijuana can cure asthma.

He said there was scientific evidence that when one took in
marijuana, it could suppress some pains in the body for sometime but,
it could also cause some damage to the body and advised the youth to
avoid smoking the drug.

Mr Ntiri was answering questions from students at a forum organized
by the Eastern Regional Chapter of the United Nations Association of
Ghana (UNA-GH) to commemorate World Drug Abuse and Trafficking Day at
Koforidua on yesterday.

He advised the youth to avoid using drugs of any kind and said some
of the youth serving prison terms often claimed they were not
conscious of their action and were not aware that their action
carried heavy sentences.

Mr Ntiri said drug abuse could also cause students to drop out of
school since they would need money to buy the drugs and so they would
always like to absent themselves from school to do menial jobs to
raise money to buy the drugs and gradually totally withdraw from school.

He called on parents to be selective in the programmes that they
allow their children to watch on the television if they are to
support their children to grow into useful adults.

Mr Anthony Cedric Adjei, Eastern Regional Co-ordinator of UNA-GH,
said his organization would soon establish a herbal centre at
Koforidua to help provide scientifically tested herbal drugs to the population.