Accra, May 26, GNA - Dr J.J. Lamptey, a lecturer at the Ghana Medical School, on Friday warned against the recent spate of advertisements of aphrodisiac substances in the media, saying they had shot up the intake of alcoholic beverages among the youth. He said the advertisements of such substances had made the products more glamorous and attractive and were easily available thereby increasing the urge to take them.

Dr Lamptey was speaking at a conference on abuse of alcohol in the Ghanaian Society in Accra.

"The danger is that most of such alcoholic beverages have not been subjected to any scientific test to determine their alcohol content therefore causing a lot of harm to many people," he said and called on health authorities to come up with comprehensive measures to regulate and curb the placement of such adverts on the airwaves.

Dr Lamptey noted that addiction to psychoactive substances had permeated the entire fibre of society and wrecked a lot of havoc, adding cases of rape, defilement, assault and rampant incidence of road accidents could somehow be traced to abuse of drugs.

Mr Logosu Amegashie, Senior Nursing Officer and Drug Counsellor at the Addictive Diseases Unit of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, who talked on attitudinal changes, said it was time society, especially health professionals, changed their perception about substance dependent clients.

He said this would enable them to give the necessary care and attention to such people in order to win the fight against substance abuse among individuals in the society.

Mr Amegashie called on parents to be responsible in the upbringing of their children and educate them on the dangers associated with drugs and their abuse to discourage them from indulging in the act.

He called for the establishment of drug and rehabilitation centres and the training of specialist drug counsellors to champion the formulation of a national drug treatment policy to confront the dangers associated with drugs.

Mr Joe Lartey, President of Attitudes Ghana, an NGO, said the organisation would collaborate with all stakeholders in the fight against substance abuse to ensure that the menace was reduced to its barest minimum.

He observed drug abuse had become a major problem but most people did not recognise it as a disease that needed to be prevented. Mr Lartey noted that in Ghana drug abuse often increased during festive periods and the organisation would step up its awareness campaign on such occasions to change the attitudes of the people. Participants at the conference agreed that there should be a national policy to regulate the use of substances that were inimical to human health.