The Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference (GCBC) has stated its firm opposition to calls for the legalization of cannabis (marijuana) in the country, noting that such a move is tantamount to lowering the handing fruits.
The Most Rev. Emmauel Kofi Fianu, SVD, Bishop of Ho and Bishop responsible for Health, who stated the Church’s position on behalf of the Conference, urged the Government not to bow to pressure to decriminalize or legalise the drug, stressing that the drug should remain banned to deprive many people from gaining access to it.
He said this at the 17th Annual Conference of the National Catholic Health Service (NCHS), at Takoradi in the Western Region on the theme: Addictions as an emerging healthcare challenge.
The Bishop stated that the Catholic Church considers those who produce substance including marijuana that are abused, leading to addiction, as lacking respect for the right and dignity of others to live.
He noted that addiction, which does not only harm the individual, affect families, the community and the society at large.
Unlike diabetes, the Bishop said drug addiction is freely adopted and seen as a vice that befalls the victim with a negative impact on their moral responsibility, rendering them open to ridicule.
Bishop Fianu, called for holistic care for the addict, noting that though the reason of addiction may be varied, punishing addicts may not be the solution.
“Whatever be the reason of the addiction, the kind attitude and affectionate reception from caregivers, the family and the surrounding environment ought not to be diminished” he noted, adding that “It is necessary to listen and to treat the addict socially, humanly, morally and spiritually as both a person and a patient in need”.
“This is because their status as humans remain the same” the prelate said, and added that the addicts are those who need more care and support because God still loves them.
To address addiction, Bishop Fianu suggested prevention, suppression and rehabilitation, and challenged caregivers to take up the role of prevention of drug abuse and rehabilitation of victims of drug addicts.
Mrs. Eugenia Gifty Kusi, Deputy Western Regional Minister, who noted that addiction is a huge societal problem, called for concerted efforts to handle the complex issue of addiction in the country.
Touching on other forms of addiction including our phones, social media, alcohols among others, the Deputy Minister stressed the need to build a health system fully funded by the NHIS to address cases of addiction.
Similarly, Mr. Peter K. Yeboah, Executive Director of the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG), noted the ill-effects of addiction and dire consequence on individual, family and society.
He called for health system approach to ensure comprehensive response in areas of service delivery, human resources, financing and partnership development to effectively tackle addiction in the country.
The Director of the NCHS, George A. Adjei,Esq., observed that the 82 Clinics, 45 Hospitals, and five (5) specialised institutions of the NCHS, saw 3,294,501 OPD attendance in 2018 which is an increase of 12% of the previous year. He said the service also recorded 350,093 admissions last years, an increase of 9% over 2017.
Mr. Adjei noted that under the implementation of the three-year NCHS Strategic Plan (2018-2020) named “Working to Become the Best in Getting Better” the service was poised to improve management capacity of the facilities and to help develop new strategic plans to undertake exceptional interventions using the Continuous Quality Improvement Methodology.
He called for more supervision and encouraged the various NCHS facilities to show keen interest in data generation, sharing and submission of complete data to the Directorate to enable NCHS achieve it drive in delivering quality healthcare.
By Kwesi Yirenkyi Boateng