The Students for Liberty (SFL) in collaboration with the Political Science Students Association (POSSA) of the SDD University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (UBIDS) has held a symposium on winning the war against the misuse, distribution and trade of drugs and substances.
SFL is an international libertarian organization with the mission of educating, developing, and empowering the next generation of leaders of liberty.
The symposium, held over the weekend at the SDD UBIDS campus, brought together students and youth advocates to discuss the theme, "End the Drug War."
The Local Coordinator of SFL Ghana, Mr Abdul Naeem Muniru said the subject of drug war was delicate as it was variously debated across the globe which students and young people needed to be made aware of, to help make informed judgements regarding the subject.
He said the subject was widely debated due to its diverse political dimensions including racial factors and discriminatory tendencies.
"It has different political dimensions, and talking about political dimensions, we have people that are saying that we should ban drug war and others are also saying that we should take on drugs but they should be minimized or controlled in certain way," he said.
Mr Muniru indicated that the discussion was important to the SFL because drug war had traces of history in which people's rights and liberties had been infringed upon while others had been discriminated against.
"It's something that has happened in history where we had a lot of racism, a lot of issues that has to do with people's rights and liberties being curtailed.
"Two people who have engaged in drug issues would be arrested and you see that one would be sentenced to two years [imprisonment] while the other is sentenced to ten years," Mr Muniru noted.
He explained that the symposium featured a video documentary on war on drugs and a debate session which helped the students to digest the complexities and diverse perspectives surrounding the subject.
The President of the Students' Representative Council (SRC), SDD UBIDS, Mr Hafiz Iddrisu Okoro described the symposium as impactful saying that the documentary together with the contributions made by participants made the session not only intellectually worthwhile but also transformational.
He intimated that even though drugs contributed significantly to the health needs of humans beings, the negative aspects of it should not be overlooked.
He, therefore, opined that it would be best if control measures are kept in place to regulate the use of drugs and substances so as to curtail their abuse and harm.
He admonished the student body to avoid the abuse of drugs saying that it was injurious to their health and could affect their academic activities.
Miss Ida Adiyone Alira, a level 300 political science student, who participated in the symposium, added that substance misuse has dire consequences on the life of an individual including risk of being jailed, losing one's memory, and developing internal body organ damage.
She said most drugs have been made to be beneficial to people but that it depended on an individual to use them rightly or wrongly, urging people to be responsible in the usage of drugs.
She, thus, advised colleague students and young people to stop the misuse of drugs so as to stay healthy and achieve their life ambitions.