The Member of Parliament for Sissala East Constituency in the Upper West Region, Hon. Mohammed Issah Bataglia has stated that drug abuse among the youth in the constituency is a national security threat.
According to him, there must be an urgent need to combat the spread of illicit drugs, which he described as a significant threat to the constituency youth and the traditional and religious leaders to speak out.
In an exclusive interview with Xtreme Media Online on Tuesday, March 4, he warned that if immediate action is not taken, many young men and women in the constituency could lose their ability to contribute productively to society within the next five years.
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To achieve this goal, he appealed to traditional and religious leaders to support law enforcement efforts against drug peddlers rather than interfering with legal processes.
“When these measures are being implemented, we need your support positively, not negatively. We cannot have people pleading for the release of offenders simply because they are relatives,” he emphasized.
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Hon. Bataglia said the situation is alarming and warned that drug abuse has contributed to a rise in mental illness cases and a decline in leadership potential among the youth.
He called for collaboration among the government, security agencies, and regulatory bodies to combat the crisis, stating, “If no decisive action is taken, our psychiatric units will be overwhelmed in the next ten years.”