I
have been ‘high’ before. I know the
feeling. It’s a great feeling. You never
want it to stop. Many call it addiction;
I like to think of it as you enjoying
nothing but yourself within that brief
moment. And why shouldn’t that
be? There isn’t much going on in our
part of the world. Depression is on the record
high and we don’t need experts to breakdown
the stats to us. We have eyes; we can see how
depressed people are these days. People just
need to get away from these negative ‘vibes’.
Traveling out of the country to relax isn’t part
of the bucket list of many Ghanaians – they can
hardly feed themselves thrice a day. Weed –
Codeine – Tramadol – now they’re getting ‘high’
on Glue…how exactly does that work?
The rate of hardship and lack of jobs are con-
tributing factors to people abusing drugs and
substances. What else can keep them occupied
and happy at the same time? Most often soci-
ety looks at the abuses rather than the causes
or influences of the abuses. What will make
a person take up alcoholism? I am not talking
about an occasional drinker. I’m referring the
individual who finds solace in a gin bottle. A
trip to the suburbs of Osu specifically some part
of the coastal area and one will be welcomed
by a sight of hopelessness and depression. On
my first visit to the place, I asked myself if these
people are also Ghanaians and if they have
representatives in parliament. I wondered as
I enjoyed the breeze from the Atlantic Ocean
which borders us as a country. These people
appear to be in a world of their own. What is
their primary source of livelihood? Prostitu-
tion and drug peddling. Don’t be quick to draw
64 | Colossium . March 2019
discriminative lines. This is the life they know.
They have not been given many options to
choose from. You can say it is a hub for crimi-
nal activities but be mindful of the fact that not
all of them are criminals.
E
ducation has become a prerequisite for
everything in today’s society yet the
majority of us are not educated. We live
in a country that has a very high illiteracy rate,
yet we make it difficult for the less privileged to
have their fair share of the national cake based
on education. We have modeled our economy
on educational lines such that those below the
lines are left to the mercy of fate. Our society
is so segregated even religious people dare not
to get close to people who live in the so-called
‘ghettos’. You seize to be relevant to society if
or when you live in these designated places.
These people who are mostly in their youth
have 24hrs a day of free time wasting away on
drugs. This is not to say they choose to do drugs
– they simply have nothing to do. At Shatta
Beach, Jamestown; I sat next to a friend who
had about 4 bottles of codeine cough syrup in
front of him. He then pulls out a ball-like sub-
stance from his pocket. When I enquired about
it, he said “asheeze”. He intoxicated himself in
my presence with impudence. Five minutes lat-
er, he would bow his head down in a sleeping
posture but he’s not asleep.
Another factor I will like to consider is peer
pressure and media influence. Peers are basic
yet the most influential people close to us. Peers
have such great influence, they can either lead
us to glory or gory. In as much as we have our
own minds, we sometimes rely on the opinions