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A Justice of the Court of Appeal, Justice Dennis Adjei, has issued a stern warning to persons who deal in narcotic drugs.
According to him, the law and law enforcement agencies are going to descend heavily on such persons following the introduction of new laws on the possession of narcotics.
He noted that previously the law ‘goes hard’ on persons who use narcotic drugs but now those who possess the drugs would receive stiffer punishment compared to users.
Justice Adjei said that when a person is arrested for usage of narcotic drugs, they are handed 15 years imprisonment; 10 years for possession and five years for usage respectively.
“In the old law when you are caught in possession of narcotic drugs – wee, cocaine, heroine, [for usage] you are handed a ten-year-sentencing when you are found guilty but when you go elsewhere the law prescribes not more than a five-year-imprisonment sentence for usage of the drug,” he said.
The Appeal’s Court Judge noted that without the supply of the drug, users wouldn’t have access and therefore argued that those who sell should receive higher jail terms.
He said that giving users longer jail terms does not fulfill the purpose of the law “because the law states that we should help users of hard drugs to stop and reform so when punishing them, they shouldn’t be jailed for more than five years but the one going to sell or supply should be treated differently.”
Justice Dennis Adjei, who doubles as the acting Director of the Judicial Training Institute made these remarks at a workshop on the Narcotics Control Commission ACT 2020 (ACT1019).
The workshop was organized by Perfection of Sentiments Foundation (POS Foundation) in partnership with International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) and West Africa Drug Policy Network (WADPN) Ghana chapter with funding from Open Society Foundation.
The workshop was on the theme: “Understanding the Narcotics Control Commission Act 2020 (Act 2019); The Role of Law Enforcement and Prosecutors in health, Rights-based best practices to handling people who use drugs in the Implementation of the Act.”
On his part, Mr. Jonathan Osei Owusu, executive director for POS foundation called for alternatives to deal with drug users rather than sending them into prisons.
He revealed that, some users take little amount of hard drugs and will be sentenced to prison but return from prison in an even get worse state.
Describing the situation as ‘criminalization of poverty’, he said it is about time we started treating those drug users rather than sending them to prison.
