The operation of drinking spots and pubs seems to have now become a very lucrative business in the Upper East Regional capital, Bolgatanga as many residents are setting up metal containers in various corners of the municipality to sell alcoholic beverages.
According to research conducted last year by the Coalition of NGOs in health, the Upper East Region led the rest of the country in terms of alcohol consumption rate with the youth being the most affected group.
Upon entry into the Bolgatanga Municipality and some other areas in the Upper East Region, what you see at first sight are metal containers or kiosks operating drinking spots. Local gin referred to as ‘akpetashie’, the locally brewed pito, beers, wines and all kinds of hard liquor are sold in these drinking bars.
One no longer has to move beyond a stone’s throw to get to a drinking spot in the Bolgatanga municipality. Therefore owning a drinking bar is now believed to be the most flourishing business of the day in Bolgatanga and perhaps the Upper East region at large. These drinking spots are owned by different categories of individuals like politicians, business men and women, health workers and teachers.
This is an obvious indication that residents of Bolgatanga especially the youth are engaging in serious alcoholism.
The big question then is why do people consume alcohol excessively, considering the health implications involved? Some members of general public said they drink as sense belongingness to a certain group of people. Others said they drunk in order to deal with their frustrations, another group said they did for fun and other did it for no known reasons at all .
Apart from drinking alcohol or “breaking bottles” as the youth prefer to refer to it, some youth in the region are engaged in the smoking of marijuana popularly called wee. The resulting impact of this apart from it being a contributing factor to poverty in the region is damage to the brain according to Deputy Director of Psychiatric Nursing, Akagwire Peter Ayurezoya.
Women in the region are not left out of the intake of hard liquor. A community mental health officer of the Ghana Health Service, Upper East Region, Amisore Gloria says not only can alcohol intake among women lead to marital problems, it can also affect the female reproductive organ
The rate at which drinking spots are springing up in this region brings to mind, the question of what the Municipal and District Assemblies and other regulatory bodies like the Ghana Tourism Authorithy are doing to check the phenomenon.
The imposition of heavy taxes on all alcoholic beverages as a way of discouraging the importation of alcoholic beverages into the region has been suggested by many opinion leaders as a good measure to reduce the consumption of alcohol.
By: Joshua Asaah | A1radioonline.com | Ghana
