�Wee� Smokers Endorse Legalization, Allege Police Complicity

Some addicted smokers of marijuana in the Ashanti regional capital Kumasi have, backed calls for the legally prohibited narcotic substance to be legalized in Ghana. The users of the substance who spoke to Kumasi-based Ultimate Radio in their various hideouts in the city, advance the argument that they feel cheated as security personnel detailed to arrest them are themselves neck-deep in the use and sale of the prohibited substance. The debate about the legalization of the psycho active substance commonly referred to as �wee� in Ghana, has been a thorny subject of controversy in several countries all over the world with some states in the USA reviewing their laws that ban the possession and use of the substance. The Executive Secretary of Ghana�s Narcotics Control Board, (NACOB) is the latest to call for a national debate on the legalization of the substance. Mr. Akrasi Sarpong argues there is excessive use and sale of marijuana in Ghana giving enough ground for the country to have a firm legal debate regarding its laws that frown on the use of cannabis. But even before the proposed debate is heeded to by Government, some �wee� smokers in the Kumasi Metropolis who have been speaking to Ultimate Radio�s Nana Oye Diabene want the substance legalized to save them from police harassment. One such devoted smoker complained �Sometimes they do arrest us but other times we have escape. So when it is legalized, we will be free from all this humiliation.� Justifying his point, he argued that just as some food substances that are healthy to some people could be dangerous to others, �Ganja� also should not be discriminated against since it makes others feel good and even helps them become more productive at work.� �As for wee, it has to be legalized because even the police who arrest us, smoke the substance more than we do. As for me, it is a very important part of my life. I take it twice a day in the morning and in the evening and I smoke it deeply,� another young man said. Another smoker said �For me, I smoke bunch. In a day I can �high� about five rolls morning, afternoon and evening. I even know that if an asthma patient inhales the smoke of wee, it brings instant healing. He accused the police of complicity in the sale of marijuana saying �a police officer can catch us and seize it but this same guys turn around and sell it back to other wee smokers�. A Thirty year old smoker plainly told Nana Oye Diabene that, �As for me, I have been smoking it with my uncle and I find it very bad if the police arrest us, beat us up, collect our money and then sell off our wee. It should be legalized to save us all this hardship� he added. But the Chief Psychiatrist of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Dr. Gordon Donnir, has argued legalizing marijuana will not be in the best interest of Ghana, adding �countries that have legalized the substance have regretted and are wondering whether they even made the right decision.� A Security Analyst, Mr. Emanuel Sowatey also expressed reservations about any move to relax laws banning the use of cannabis in Ghana as according to him, most armed robbers smoke the drug to embolden them to commit crime. He explained that if any country needs to legalize a substance of a sort it �normally would require integrated and enlightened laws with very strong correctional facilities in terms of rehabilitation.