The Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) has disclosed that more than 6,000 applicants who failed mandatory drug screening during this year’s recruitment into Ghana’s security services tested positive for five major illicit substances, including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.
Deputy Director-General of NACOC, Alexander Twum-Barimah, made the revelation during an interview on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Thursday, July 30, as he discussed the country’s growing drug abuse and trafficking concerns.
According to him, the applicants did not test positive for a single drug but for a range of illicit substances.
“They didn’t just fail one common drug. They failed five main ones,” Mr Twum-Barimah said.
He identified the drugs as cocaine, heroin, cannabis, opioids and methamphetamine.
“One, cocaine; two, heroin; three, cannabis; four, opioids; and meth. These were the five main ones,” he stated.
Earlier this year, NACOC announced that more than 6,000 of the over 100,000 applicants screened for recruitment into Ghana’s security services had failed mandatory drug tests. However, the Commission had not previously disclosed the specific substances detected.
Mr Twum-Barimah explained that while cannabis is cultivated locally, cocaine and heroin are not produced in Ghana but continue to find their way into the country through illicit trafficking.
“Cocaine is not made in Ghana. Heroin is not made in Ghana. Cannabis, I mean that one is Ghana’s own,” he said.
Commenting on methamphetamine, he noted that there is currently no confirmed evidence of local production, although investigations have linked Ghana to international drug trafficking networks.
“I’m not sure we cook meth in Ghana. We’ve not gotten to the case where we can say there is evidence that we found this here,” he explained.
He added that ongoing investigations, including a case involving Australia, have provided intelligence on the movement and origin of some methamphetamine shipments.
“But at least we have a case, the Australian one, where we’ve gotten to know where the loads or the items were loaded,” he added.
