The Acting Director General of the Narcotic Control Commission (NCC), Mr Kenneth AduAmanfoh, has called on stakeholders to support the fight against drug abuse to ensure public safety and security in the country.

“Addressing the drug problem is a shared and common responsibility, requiring all stakeholders to play their roles effectively,” he added.

He made the call during the opening ceremony of Universal Treatment Curriculum (UTC) training for 10 health professionals in Accra yesterday.

Organised by the Narcotic Control Commission (NCC), the programme sought to provide participants, mainly health and addiction professional, with the relevant knowledge and skills set to effectively discharge their work.

Making reference to United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) 2021 World Drug Report,Mr Amanfoh said drug use was constantly increasing at a global scale, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In 2020,275 million people worldwide used illicit substance whiles 36 million people live with an addiction that threatens their health and wellbeing,” he added.

The acting Director General stated that the NCC Act, 2020 provided that, substance disorder was treated as a public health issue.

Mr Amanfoh stated that managing persons suffering from substance use disorder on the way to recovery was a professional calling which required skills.

He said since the inception of the UTC training programme in Ghana in 2014,125 persons has been trained.

He advised the public, especially the youth to desist from the abuse of narcotic substance in the country, adding that the continuous use of such substance posed a grave danger to one’s health and the economy.

The Head of Communications of NCC, Mr FrancisOpoku Amoah, stated that 245 substance abuse users reported to 17 health facilities across the country for treatment within the first three quarters of 2021.

He said the highest recorded persons were between the ages of 15 and 19 years, while the lowest were between seven and nine years, who reported to the facilities with cases of alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, heroin and shisha abuse.

Some of the topics to be discussed are what is psycho-active substance and how they work, psychoactive substance and the brain communication, effects and health consequences of drugs, introduction to recovery management and factors affecting treatment outcomes.

In attendance were the Deputy Director General of Enforcement, Control and Elimination, Mr Michael Addo, the Director of Demand Reduction, Mr MacDonald Dei, and head of Operations, SylvesterAdu, all of the NCC.