The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Kpone-Katamanso Municipal Assembly (KKMA), Solomon Tetteh Appiah, has cautioned the youth against allowing themselves to be used to foment violence during the electioneering period.
He remarked that, the state of despondency on the part of the youth had invariably been exploited by unscrupulous politicians and community leaders to accomplish their desires leaving the youth to become victims of their own actions.
He explained that, the most practical and certain approach to imbibing the values, principles or culture of democracy in the Ghanaian society was to confront the challenge from below by inculcating into the youth as future leaders, the culture of democracy.
Mr Appiah made the observation last Friday at the inauguration of KKMA Youth Parliament at Kpone.
He said the idea of youth parliament, instituted by the National Youth Authority (NYA) through the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, would create a diplomatic channel through which the youth can contribute to national debates and decision-making process, especially on issues that affect their future.
The youth parliament would also serve as an advocacy forum to deliberate on pertinent issues affecting them, instil in them the spirit of cooperation and non-aggression in pursuing any perceived injustice and deprivation.
Speaking on the theme, “State of drug abuse among the youth in the municipality”, which was later debated upon by the house, Mr Appiah called for stiffer laws to bar drug peddlers from selling unapproved and illicit drugs to unsuspecting youth.
He, therefore, called for such regulation that would make acquisition of medicines compulsory through prescription to decrease accessibility to certain drugs by the youth.
A representative from the Kpone Health Directorate, Abel Tetteh, said there was no available data to tell the number of youth who were on hard drugs because they did not avail themselves for fear of apprehension or victimisation.
However, a sensitisation visit by personnel from the directorate to schools, churches and some hideouts of the drugs addicts revealed that a disturbing figure of the youth were into drugs or had fair knowledge of drugs such as tramadol, Indian hemp and alcohol, he stated.
Mr Tetteh said access to and abuse of these drugs predispose them to criminalities such as robbery, rape, disrespect and other social misconducts as well as negative health effects, including brain damage, seizures, liver disorders, among others.
A stakeholders’ road map by the youth parliament, KKMA, youth coalitions in the municipality and the media was agreed upon to undertake campaigns to control the menace.
FROM KEN AFEDZI, KPONE
