{"id":237115,"date":"2016-08-06T07:01:26","date_gmt":"2016-08-06T07:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=237115"},"modified":"2016-08-06T07:01:26","modified_gmt":"2016-08-06T07:01:26","slug":"wee-users-should-be-rehabilitated-not-jailed-nacob-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=237115","title":{"rendered":"‘Wee’ users should be rehabilitated not jailed – NACOB boss"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), Yaw Akrasi Sarpong believes a lenient paradigm shift is needed in the approach of law enforcement to crimes involving marijuana.<\/p>\n

Mr. Sarpong described as a waste of money and an \u201conslaught on conscience\u201d the fact that people are arrested for possession of marijuana.<\/p>\n

The NACOB boss is not stranger to more left-field approaches to the substance as he previously\u00a0called for a national debate on the legalization<\/a><\/strong><\/span> of marijuana in Ghana.<\/p>\n

[contextly_sidebar id=”ZMiRClEUEHBrtxDUSQ62lgj8wdcECaXH”]Addressing the media on Friday,\u00a0he acknowledged that marijuana was a major problem in Africa but held that the response to this scourge by society was \u201ccompletely misunderstood.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NACOB boss bemoaned the stigmatization of marijuana asking: \u201cWhat is so sinful about a young man who is unfortunately involved in problematic substance use\u2026 what is the difference between him and someone who is an alcoholic?\u201d<\/p>\n

He was adamant the laws concerning Marijuana enforcement had to change and called for a reform and national debate in Ghana\u2019s approach to the substance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is that we are spending so much money on people who smoke one roll and remanding them in prison. That is an onslaught on conscience\u2026 Sometimes they don\u2019t do it because they are bad. They do it because of peer pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emphasis on\u00a0<\/strong>rehabilitation<\/b><\/p>\n

A more tailored approach to dealing with drug addicts because according to Mr. Sarpong because \u201caddiction is a disease. It is not a sin and if it is disease, it must be treated like malaria. It is not the criminal justice system that deals with it. That is our view.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also shared the way forward as far as his vision in the enforcement of marijuana was concerned.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we engaged the MPs, our position was this; first time user, warn the person, an administrative warning. It must be recorded. You must sit him down and let him understand the consequences. What is the essence of arresting him if you don\u2019t let him know the consequences?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second time, warn him again. The third time fine him, an administrative fine, very meagre \u2013 GHc50. But the fourth time, it means that there is likely to be a problem, divert him to a drug treatment centre.\u201d<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

By: Delali Adogla-Bessa\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), Yaw Akrasi Sarpong believes a lenient paradigm shift is needed in the approach of law enforcement to crimes involving marijuana. Mr. Sarpong described as a waste of money and an \u201conslaught on conscience\u201d the fact that people are arrested for possession of marijuana. The NACOB boss […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-slider-1","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=237115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=237115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=237115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=237115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}