A non-governmental organisation (NGO), Community Education and Counselling Services (CECONS), has launched a 'drugs free' education campaign at Amasaman in the Ga West Municipality of the Greater Accra Region to bring to the attention of the community, the devastating effects of drug abuse.
According to a health consultant and founder of CECONS, Rev. Dr Daniel B. Agyemfrah, drug and alcohol abuse among teenagers and young adults today remained one of the most troubling problems in the country with experts warning of serious social consequences if the problem was not tackled.
He said prevention through education had become the newest panacea to the problem of abuse.
" It is important that the youth are equipped with basic skills and knowledge on the do�s and don'ts of living a successful life which they would be expected to follow," he said.
Dr Agyemfrah observed that due to parental neglect, the youth, including juveniles, visited drinking bars and patronised drinks laced with narcotic substances. He, therefore, advised parents to forge strong bonds with their children and endeavour to inculcate good social values in them.
He said plans were advanced to establish a rehabilitation and counselling centre in the Eastern Region to absorb the youth roaming the streets.
"Youth who come to the centre will be given livelihood skills such as carpentry, tailoring, welding and fabrication and bakery or in other skills as their situation may require," he said.
A patron of CECONS, Nana Solomon Buor-Adjekum, urged parents to instill discipline early in the lives of their children since any delay in the proper nurturing of children made it difficult for corrections to be done in the future.
Earlier, the organisers of the programme paid a courtesy call on the Chief of Amasaman, Nii Amasa Oseku, who pledged his support to ensure that the youth in the area were free from dangerous drugs.
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