Accra (Greater Accra), 14th April ?99 ?

Mr Franklin Asamoah Mensah, a United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) officer, said on Monday that Ghanaian and Nigerian drug trafficking networks continue to dominate the drug scene. He said statistics from those arrested from the sub-region, Europe and North America also indicate that drug couriers of a variety of West African nationalities are being used to diversify and subsequently dodge traditional courier profiles.

Mr Mensah was speaking at the opening of a five-day workshop on the assessment of the drug situation in Ghana organised by the Dakar-based UNDCP regional office for West and Central Africa and being attended by participants from Ghana and Nigeria. It aims at mapping out modalities to check drug trafficking and training personnel who will in turn train others to go into the field to undertake an assessment of drug abuse and illicit trafficking.

Mr Mensah said there is limited reliable data on drug cultivation, production, manufacture, trafficking and abuse, and this is a major constraint when trying to assess the drug situation in most African countries. He said cannabis is the most prevalent in West Africa, and its main producers are still assumed to be Ghana and Nigeria, followed by Senegal and Cote d'Ivoire.