SHS Teacher, 4 Others Arrested For Farming Weed In Forest Reserve
Five suspects, including a senior high school teacher, were detained by the Forestry Commission of Ghana’s Afram Plains North District office for cultivating marijuana inside a forest reserve.
The alleged gang leader, Michael Anakpo, a teacher at Donkorkrom Agric Senior High School, and his collaborators were apprehended while on the about 80-hectare cannabis field inside the forest.
Blewu Nomenyo, Korsi Mawuena, Charles Kale, and Emmanuel Kojo are the other suspects.
However, after attempting to assault the forestry officers, more than ten more suspects who were also found on the cannabis field managed to flee.
The District Forestry Manager Richard Amoateng led the forestry operation team that recovered 3 huge bags, 6 tiny sacks, 5 plastic water containers loaded with harvested cannabis, cutlasses, wine laced with cannabis, and many other items.
Additionally, the suspects had raised several cannabis plants for planting. The group estimated that there were roughly 13 tents on the farm where they were staying.
Additionally, they had put up a sign saying, “Don’t try.”
The Forestry Commission is getting ready to go back and destroy the cannabis farm.
The new Narcotics Control Commission Act, 2020 (Act 1019), which was approved by Parliament on March 20, 2020, and signed into law by the President on May 11, 2020, aims to treat drug use and dependence as a public health issue as opposed to concentrating on law enforcement, incarceration, punishment, and repression. The new law has changed the punishment for drug possession for personal use from a jail sentence to a fine of 200 to 500 penalty units, or Ghc2,400 to Ghc6,000, as appropriate.
Act 1019’s Section 43 of the Narcotic Control Commission Act, 2022 (Act 1019) states that “the Minister may grant a license for the cultivation of cannabis, commonly known as “wee” in Ghana, which has not more than 0.3% THC on a dry weight basis for industrial purposes of obtaining fiber or seed for medicinal purposes.”
However, a seven-member panel of the top court determined this portion breaches Article 106 of the 1992 Constitution, which outlines the procedures a bill must go through before it is approved into law by Parliament, and was thus unlawful, in a 4-3 majority ruling on Wednesday (July 28, 2022).
Seth Kwame Acheampong, the Eastern Regional Minister, and Yaw Akrasi Sarpong, the former executive secretary of what is now the Narcotics Control Commission (NCC), both represent Ghana on the UNODC.
