Takoradi, 18 October, 2019 / 11:48 pm (ACI Africa).
The harmful use of alcohol and drugs and the impact this seems to be having on individuals, families, and various groups in Ghana was the focus of the recent 17th annual conference of the National Catholic Health Service (NCHS) held last week under the theme, “Addictions as an Emerging Healthcare Challenge.”
“Addiction is a problem without bounds or limited to a particular class of people or age group or race or sex or nationality or status or profession and is a dependence problem,” the chairman of the Commission for health of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Emmanuel Kofi Fianu told participants in the three-day conference held in Ghana’s Sekondi-Takoradi diocese.
“Church teaches that the dignity of human life entails the demand that man should treat with respect not only his own body, but also the bodies of every other person, especially the suffering,” Bishop Fianu who is the Local Ordinary of Ghana’s Ho diocese said, citing the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
He added, “One cannot speak of freedom or right to take drugs because a human being does not have the right to harm himself/herself and cannot abdicate his/her personal dignity which is given to him/her by God at creation.”
Addressing the conference participants, among them directors, managers and staff of NCHS, the Ghanaian Prelate frowned at “those who produce and peddle substance that are abused and make others dependent on them leading to addictions,” and described them “as lacking respect for the rights of others to live in dignity in Christ.”
