Ghana: Government committed to ensuring drug laws consistent with international obligation – Interior Minister

The Government is committed to ensuring that drug laws and policies are consistent with the country’s obli­gations under international human rights treaties it has acceded to.

The Minister for the Interior, Mr Ambrose Dery, said this in Accra on Monday at the National Dialogue on the International Guidelines on Human Rights and Drug Policy in Ghana.

The two-day dialogue was to consider the content and imple­mentation of the International Guidelines on Human Rights and Drug Policy in the context of Ghana’s ongoing drug reform process.

According to him, the govern­ment was developing measures that would improve health, safety, security and the socio-economic wellbeing of the people by reduc­ing drug-related harm and illicit trafficking.

As part of efforts by govern­ment to empower mandated state institutions to perform effectively, Mr Dery said the Narcotics Con­trol Commission Act was passed in the year 2020 to transform the former Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), which had limited functions, to the independent Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC), one with an expanded mandate and law enforcement powers.

This, he said, was aimed at closing the gaps in interagency co-ordination and strengthen­ing the government’s toolkit for combating drug-related harms in the country.

“The Narcotics Control Commission Act 2020 (Act 1019) also seeks to reduce the stringent mandatory five-year imprisonment for possession and personal use of illicit drugs to a lesser punish­ment,” he added.

He stated that the Act was focused on establishing a more hu­mane drug policy and pave way for best practices in the management of narcotic drugs in the country.