Koforidua, June 27, GNA - The Eastern Regional Guidance and Counsellor of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Baah Ntiri, has said there was no clinical proof that marijuana could cure asthma. He said there was scientific evidence that when one took in marijuana, it could suppress some pains in the body for sometime but it could also cause some damage to the body and advised the youth to avoid smoking the drug.

Mr Ntiri was answering questions from students at a forum organized by the Eastern Regional Chapter of the United Nations Association of Ghana (UNA-GH) to commemorate World Drug Abuse and Trafficking Day at Koforidua on Tuesday.

He advised the youth to avoid using drugs of any kind and said some of the youth serving prison terms often claimed they were not conscious of their action and were not aware that their action carried heavy sentences.

Mr Ntiri said drug abuse could also cause students to drop out of school since they would need money to buy the drugs and so they would always like to absent themselves from school to do menial jobs to raise money for the drugs and gradually totally withdraw from school. He called on parents to be selective in the programmes that they would allow their children to watch on the television if they are to support their children to grow into useful adults.

Mr Anthony Cedric Adjei, Eastern Regional Co-ordinator of UNA-GH, said his organization would soon establish an herbal centre at Koforidua to help provide scientifically tested herbal drugs to the population.