From Richard Owusu-Akyaw, Ejisu-Ash
The Ashanti Regional Commander of the Police Drug Law Enforcement Unit, ASP Jeremiah Alale has advised police officers to be meticulous while investigating drug related cases to avoid throwing into jail mentally deranged people.
ASP Alale urged the police not to hesitate to invite experts to determine the state of mind of people caught either in possession or in the act of using hard drugs.
The Unit Commander emphasized that it is possible for the police investigators to mistake drug abusers of unsound mind for hardened criminals and encouraged investigators to go the extra mile to satisfy themselves that any person caught illegally possessing or abusing narcotic drugs was sane, before putting such an offender before court to stand trial.
He was addressing participants at a training workshop organized by the Willing Way Foundation Academy, a rehabilitation facility for drug addicts at Fumesua in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality of the Ashanti region to sensitise police investigators on how to efficiently handle drug cases.
The participants, drawn from across the Ashanti Region were taken through drug administration and categories of narcotics, depressants, stimulants, steroids and hallucinogens.
The Police Drug Law Enforcement Unit commander indicated that drug addiction was a brain-disease and the right place for the addict is a mental facility.
The Ashanti Regional Mental Health Coordinator, Mrs. Faustina Nuako urged the Police Administration particularly Drug Law Enforcement Unit to intensify education on the Lunatic Asylum Ordinance and Mental Health Act 846, to help protect the rights of persons with mental disorders including those with substance abuse disorders.
She said the Mental Health Act enjoins a police officer to remove a mentally ill person seen in public places to a place of safety or for mental health assessment and that any person arrested by the police for a crime and suspected to be mental ill should be sent to hospital for mental health assessment within 48 hours.
Mrs. Nuako said this category includes inmates of the criminal justice system who are suspected of having a mental illness at the time of admission, as well as those who develop mental illness while in prison.
The Founder of Willing Ways Foundation Ghana, Madam Lydia Abena Manu, advised families of drug addicts not to shun them, but give them the necessary support to wean them off addiction by getting them enrolled in rehabilitation centres. She also called for increased public education to create awareness on the negative consequences of the use of narcotic drugs.
From Richard Owusu-Akyaw, Ejisu-Ash The Ashanti Regional Commander of the Police Drug Law Enforcement Unit, ASP Jeremiah Alale has advised police officers to be meticulous while investigating drug related cases to avoid throwing into jail mentally deranged people. ASP Alale urged the police not to hesitate to invite experts to determine the state of mind […] Read Full Story
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