GOVERNMENT TO TAKE A SECOND LOOK AT CONFISCATED ASSETS OF DRUG PEDDLERS

Story: Mary Mensah, Back from Zambia
Government has been urged to take a second look at the laws on confiscated property of persons convicted of drug charges.
Such property whether moveable or immovable like buildings, vehicles and lands should be disposed of and the proceeds paid into the accounts of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) to support the fight against drug abuse, trafficking and money laundering.
This forms part of recommendations made by an eight member delegation from Ghana to Zambia on study tour.
The Zambian experience has been accepted by the international community as one of the best on the African continent that has helped that country to fight drug trafficking, cannabis cultivation and abuse.
The nine-day tour was organised by NACOB for its stakeholders to study the use of traditional rulers like chiefs and queens in drug demand reduction strategies and money laundering for possible implementation in Ghana.
Members of the delegation were drawn from NACOB, Consortium of NGO's in Drug Abuse Prevention, the Media, School Health Educational Programme (SHEP) of the Ministry of Education, Financial Intelligence Centre and Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS).
According to the delegation, for NACOB to be totally effective and efficient in its operations there is the need to fast track efforts of government to make it independent.
The delegation also called on NACOB to look beyond government’s support and step out to the donor communities to mobilise support from there to argument government contribution to demand reduction programmes in the country.
They called attractive reward packages, incentives and protection for whistle blowers because NACOB cannot work in isolation they need information from members of the public to enable them discharge their duties effectively and efficiently.
It observed that the DEC in Zambia has been very successful by using the traditional structure in the community to facilitate demand reduction efforts because the traditional leaders in Zambia are under governmental control hence do not have their autonomy, they do not control resource to sustain demand reduction programmes.
Whereas in Ghana, there is a rich traditional culture where traditional leaders have control over resources and their subjects. What is lacking is NACOB's inability to bring them on board to spear head demand reduction programmes in their communities.
The delegation recommends that, in view of the fact that traditional leaders in Ghana are endowed with rich resources including financial resources and are, to a greater extent, independent of governmental controls, a conscious effort must be made to include them in the demand reduction efforts of NACOB since;
“The delegation would like to place on record its appreciation to Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) and the Executive Secretary in particular for their support to the delegation which greatly contributed to making the visit to Zambia possible.”, it said.
The delegation would further like to appreciate the Ghana High Commission in Zambia for the support given to the delegation while in Zambia. Officials of the commission were assigned to the delegation to ensure that their objectives were met.
“We want to express our appreciation to the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) in Zambia for opening their doors to the delegation to have an insight into their operations adding that their interactions with them have been very insightful. We are also very grateful to the traditional leaders we met who provided the delegation with information on their operations in their various communities.
It is hoped that the recommendations made will aid NACOB to re-define its demand reduction strategies, to bring all stakeholders on board to support effort of government to have a comprehensive demand reduction effort in Ghana.