At a time when Ghana has assumed pride of place in the international illicit drug trade, I am told some political big wigs are busily debating whether to debate cocaine in election 2008. This is dreadful except perhaps not nearly as terrible as the confirmation of my worst fears tonight. It is also fairly predictable considering that often enough, when issues break, they are sorted out purely along partisan political lines. Never mind, because today, my focus is neither which party allegedly originated cocaine trade in Ghana nor under whose watch the business most thrived. As the numerous stories of appearing and disappearing cocaine in high and low places flourish, my fear has always been that given our lacklustre approach to what should have constituted a full-blown war against cocaine, Ghana could well be approaching the status of a user-nation. And in case you had no idea what a usernation means, let me tell you a story or two about my cousin Wumbe and my friend Latif who both live and work in London. One day during break time at work, a young Pakistani man with slick oily hair coolly approached Latif. He then invited Latif to join him during break for the purposes of doing drugs. When Latif politely declined the offer, the Pakistani looked at him incredulously and proclaimed, "You come from this part of London and you don't do drugs?" Apparently, doing drugs was more the norm than not! In the case of Wumbe, whenever he closed from work with his knapsack slung over his shoulder, he would espy a group of white folks, mainly children, playing in the neighbourhood. One day, these children, who couldn't possibly be more than 12 years at best, calmly approached him and asked to buy some drugs from him. Whether it was the colour of his skin, his dodgy walking style or his bulky knapsack, no one can tell and although we laughed heartily over it much later, it left him somewhat upset. And that was for the simple reason that Wumbe was neither a dealer nor a user of alcohol, let alone cocaine and heroine. So then to my simple mind, the fact of Ghana becoming a user nation means that we are fast approaching the stage when cocaine and its brothers become so abundant on the streets that there is enough to share to the satisfaction of anyone who is given to its destructively addictive alluring promises. Often when things degenerate to this stage, it is the youth of the country that suffer most and then the nation has to spend millions putting together an elaborate programme to rehabilitate them with the aim of reintegrating them into society. But there I go again, not telling exactly what has given rise to this acute panic attack of mine. Dr J. B. Asare is wholly responsible for my predicament. Furthermore, he is so credible that he couldn't possibly be spinning a yarn. The nationally decorated doctor is the immediate past Chief Psychiatrist of Ghana and is now a member of the International Narcotics Control Board ONCB) whose recently launched 2007 report focuses on Proportionality and Drug-related offences. He is copiously reported by the Ghana News Agency as saying that "the Board suspects that there is small-scale manufacture of cocaine and heroin in the country". He added that "there is overwhelming evidence of the availability of the chemicals used in producing illicit drugs like cocaine, heroin and amphetamine type stimulants in Ghana. These chemicals are used to refine the coca and opium, which are imported into the country". "These chemicals come into the country mainly from South Africa and they come through customs checkpoints all the time, but the officers are not able to detect them," Dr Asare was quoted as saying. In the same interview, the celebrated psychiatrist takes issue with the following: The lax import and monitoring processes even where some of these precursor substances are imported for legitimate purposes, weak legislation against trafficking in precursor chemicals, the economic means and institutional structures to counter the drug challenge effectively, poor supervision in the use of prescription only drugs resulting in the misuse of pharmaceutical preparations containing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances being sold on the streets. In the aftermath of the above, the statistics shock repeatedly without remorse; Interpol estimates that 200-300 tons of cocaine made their way from Latin America into Europe through West Africa, where it was stockpiled and repackaged for transport. As a result, Africa currently accounted for 7.6 per cent of all cocaine abusers in the world and the production and abuse of cannabis was also on the rise on the continent, the report said. Furthermore 50 per cent of prisoners in Ghana were said to be in jail for drug-related offences. Dr Asare and INCB proposed the setting up of specialised courts and comprehensive rehabilitation systems for addressing some of the above challenges. For my part, I humbly submit that nothing short of an open declaration of war against cocaine and its brethren backed by committed action will enable us to significantly reverse the trend. We simply cannot afford to add large scale drug abuse to HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. And while we are at it, I urge the Ghanaian press to make every endeavour to elevate the narcotic menace to the very top of the political agenda for election 2008. Beyond this, we must all support the use of every means at their disposal to extract solutions from our would-be leaders. By Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey-Daily Graphic