Chasing Highs and Losing Tomorrow: A Nation’s Youth, Trapped in the Shadows of Addiction
They once dreamt of becoming doctors, engineers, pilots, poets. Bright-eyed children from the corners of Accra, Kumasi, Tamale, and Takoradi — students in neatly pressed uniforms, their laughter echoing through school compounds, their futures stretching far and wide. Today, many of them are shadows of that promise — slumped on street corners, pacing rehab wards, or locked behind bars.
In Ghana, a growing number of young people are not chasing their dreams — they are chasing highs.
A High Price for a Quick Escape
Drug addiction in Ghana is no longer a whisper in the ghettos — it’s a scream from our classrooms, our homes, and our streets. From codeine-laced cough syrups to tramadol, weed-infused edibles to the deadly mix of synthetic pills known as “Red,” substances once foreign are now frighteningly common. The faces of addiction are no longer strangers; they are our children, our siblings, our classmates.
At first, it starts as experimentation — peer pressure, curiosity, pain relief. But the high fades fast, and the trap sets in. One pill becomes two. Two becomes a habit. Then the dreams begin to dissolve.
The Cost of a Stolen Future
Every young person lost to drugs is a future undone. School desks sit empty. Talents go unpolished. Ambitions that once burned bright flicker out under the weight of dependence.
You’ll find them wandering markets, mumbling to themselves. You’ll see them at traffic lights, wiping windscreens for change. You’ll hear of them dying silently — overdosed, rejected, forgotten. Families are torn. Parents age overnight, watching their children spiral. Communities live in fear of what their youth might become.
Ghana cannot afford this loss. We are a country built on the backs and dreams of our young people. If we lose them, we lose tomorrow.
Where Are We Failing?
The warning signs have long been clear — yet the national response has often been too slow, too quiet, too fragmented. Rehabilitation centres are few and underfunded. Mental health support is scarce. Drug education in schools is shallow or nonexistent. And worst of all, society too often chooses to shame the addicted rather than help them.
When a young person is drowning in drugs, they don’t need punishment. They need rescue. They need community. They need a chance.
The Choice Before Us
As a nation, we must now ask ourselves: will we continue to look away? Or will we rise to pull our youth out of the dark?
Let us rebuild their dreams. Let us offer healing instead of judgment. Let us strengthen families, empower schools, support traditional leaders, and expand real, accessible recovery services.
Because behind every young person chasing a high, there is a soul crying for hope.
And if we do not act — boldly and now — we will not only lose them.
We will lose Ghana’s future.
Yours in the service of Ghana
Kasise Ricky Peprah
The Honourrebel Siriguboy
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