A former Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), Akrasi Sarpong, has challenged a UN report that Ghana is the highest consumer of cannabis in Africa.

The report also said Ghana was the third highest consumer of marijuana in the world.

But speaking on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM on Tuesday 27 June, Mr Sarpong said there has been no survey to back the UN finding.

“I have a challenge with the statistics. First of all, neither the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) nor ECOWAS nor NACOB can tell any Ghanaian anywhere that there has been a baseline survey on drug use in Ghana. It has been in NACOB’s budget ever since 2005, but there has been no baseline survey. So where those statistics come from I do not know,” he told show host Moro Awudu.

“We should treat the statistics with a pinch of salt but it ought to tell us in Ghana that government ought to look for money and do a proper baseline survey because out there, there are many people who believe that story. Government has not challenged the world drug report where this statistic is supposed to be located.”

Mr Sarpong suggested that “academicians must conduct some research; ECOWAS must put some more money into some research [because] it is very easy to put those statistics out there.”