The government has resolved to pursue a vigorous Alternative Development Programme to counter illicit cultivation of cannabis in the country.

In this regard, the Narcotics Control Board (NCB) through the efforts of the government has secured a financial assistance package of hundred million cedis to finance a crop substitution project.

This was contained in an address read by Mr Affram Asiedu, Out-going Deputy Minister for the Interior, at the 46th Session of the Commission on Narcotics Drugs, in Vienna, Austria.

Mr Asiedu said, as a start the NCB had selected Essam, a village located about 130 kilometres away from Accra for the programme and indicated that over five hundred farmers have signed up for the programme.

He said the NCB was soliciting for foreign donor support to train and equip the participants of the programme and also extend it to other parts of the country.

Mr Aseidu said the government in recent times had seen the need to adopt more proactive measures to prevent illicit cultivation of cannabis, which had become a major headache for it and the people as well as the West African Sub-Region.

He said the government of Ghana through the NCB was working hard to overcome these crimes and also to contribute its quota towards removing the drug menace from the face of the earth, adding that Ghana's efforts alone would not be sufficient without the support in cash or kind from her development partners.

He said the government was reliably informed that this ' laissez faire'' attitude towards cannabis was because some nations find the drug useful in the treatment of cancer.

Mr Asiedu appealed to the Western Countries to take a second look at the reclassification of cannabis by exploring other means of combating cancer.

He said a disturbing aspect of drug abuse was its relationship with the deadly disease HIV/AIDS and indicated that NCB was collaborating extensively with the country's Presidential Commission on AIDS and the Ghana AIDS Commission in sensitising and creating awareness about the threat of HIV/AIDS, drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking.

He pointed out that NCB was not making the desired impact in the area of treatment, rehabilitation and social re-integration.