Be careful of seniors in SHS who lace food with drugs
Junior students in senior high school (SHS) should be careful when they eat with their seniors since some of the food they eat are laced with drugs, the Officer in Charge of the Male Observation Ward of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Mrs Comfort Anumah, has warned.
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According to her, most young students are often naive so some of the seniors who abuse drugs take advantage of them and use every available means to introduce them to that bad habit.
She said junior students should not trust anybody and should always be on their guard and resist any attempt to lure them into abusing drugs with all their might.
Mrs Anumah noted that apart from smoking marijuana, some students used the drugs in preparing tea and lured the juniors to join them to drink it. She added that some seniors even went to the extent of using their money to buy the drugs for the juniors to entice them also to abuse drugs.
She said although some students abused other drugs such as cocaine and heroine, marijuana use among them was very high because it was less expensive and easily available, adding that “a roll of marijuana cost GH¢1.”
Mrs Anumah indicated that upon investigations during counselling sessions with some of the victims of drug abuse, a number of them confessed that they fell into drugs due to peer pressure, curiosity or loneliness.
She stated that some of the students confessed that seniors and some of their mates who abused drugs lured them into the habit by misinforming them that drugs helped them to study well and made those who are timid confident. She pointed out that “all these are misconceptions.”
Mrs Anumah indicated that when students abused drugs, they usually became aggressive and when they were in that condition they needed to undergo chemotherapy and take pills to calm them down.
She stressed that “everybody’s body constitution is different; someone would smoke marijuana for a long time and nothing would happen to him but another might do so only once and might go mad so it is important for all students to be aware of this and always advice themselves accordingly.”
She also advised students never to try to abuse drugs because they would not know what would happen to them.
Mrs Anumah said parents should visit their children in school and get to know the kind of friends they have and advise them appropriately.
She explained that “when a person becomes addicted to drugs, quitting is very difficult.”