Pubdate: Fri, 15 Dec 2000
Source: Daily Graphic (CN MB)
Copyright: 2000 Portage la Prairie Daily Graphic
Contact:  P.O. Box 130,  Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada, R1N 3B4
Fax: (204) 239-1270
Website: http://www.bowesnet.com/dailygraphic/

DRUGS AND MENTAL CASES

DR  Sammy Allotey, specialist in charge of the Pantang Psychiatric Hospital 
in the Greater Accra Region, has disclosed that 17,000 mental patients have 
been treated and discharged from the hospital this year alone.

He also indicated that a total of 250,521 mental patients have been treated 
and discharged by the hospital since its establishment 25 years ago.

Dr Allotey, who made this known at the end-of-year fund-raising gathering 
on Wednesday, also expressed concern about the increasing numbers of young 
people reporting with mental cases arising from drug abuse and appreciable 
numbers of women who have been emotionally and physically abused (see 
centre pages).

It is true that the rising incidence of mental cases is a global phenomenon 
from which Ghana and other countries cannot completely claim immunity. 
Globalisation has made nonsense of the otherwise wide distances that 
separate nations and actively facilitated the bringing together of people 
of diverse ethnic, religious, racial, social, economic and other 
backgrounds. With this advantage of proximity engendered by globalisation 
has come a variety of influences both positive and negative.

But whilst we have been relatively slow, mainly because of our level of 
development, in making advances in the technological sphere to enable us to 
close the yawning technological gap between us and the developed world, we 
have rapidly assimilated some negative traits and values from the developed 
world which have had and continue to have far-reaching consequences for our 
nations and people.

The proliferation and increasing use of hard drugs such as marijuana, 
cocaine, heroin and others are, in a large measure, reported to account for 
the rise in the number of mental cases in the society.

It has particularly become attractive for the youth to take to such drugs 
as a result of peer pressure or as inducement to indulge in acts of 
mischief or the supposed pleasure they give them.

In some of our second cycle and tertiary institutions, the indulgence in 
hard drugs has been wrongly and dangerously elevated to the status of 
enlightenment with those who shy from their use being tagged as "uncivilised".

But the bigger danger in this regard has been the erroneous impression in 
the ranks of many students that resorting to the use of hard drugs enhances 
their ability to assimilate their lessons and thus boost their academic 
performance. Largely on the strength of this misconception, a good number 
of students, many of whom are brilliant enough to pass their examinations 
without any external assistance, have ended up in psychiatric hospitals and 
ruined their educational career.

The revelation by the authorities of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital 
recently to the effect that an appreciable number of students have come 
there seeking medical attention on account of drug abuse is but a testimony 
to this serious concern raised by us. T he Graphic perceives education and 
the exertion of more parental influence, including that of teachers at 
school, as important factors that can help stem the tide of the increasing 
drug abuse in the society.

In this challenging 21st Century that we have entered, a healthy, strong 
and well-educated and focused youth represents the hope for the future.

It is, therefore, a matter of serious concern for considerable numbers of 
the youth to waste their lives on drugs and instead of being assets, have 
rather become liabilities whom the state has to spend huge sums of money to 
rehabilitate. 
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom