Stop Raiding Schools. Start Investing in Young People

Every few months, Ghanaians are treated to dramatic images of students being rounded up, searched, arrested, and publicly exposed in the name of the war on drugs. The latest school raids by the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) may generate headlines and social media applause, but they raise a troubling question: Are we solving the problem or simply performing enforcement for public consumption?

If the objective is reducing drug use among young people, the evidence is overwhelming: raids, arrests, and criminalisation do not work. For more than fifty years, countries around the world have waged a costly war on drugs. Trillions have been spent on enforcement. Millions have been arrested. Yet drugs remain available, drug markets continue to thrive, and new psychoactive substances emerge faster than authorities can ban them. If punitive crackdowns were the solution, the world would have won this war long ago.

Instead, what these policies have often produced is a cycle of stigma, exclusion, and wasted human potential.

When a student is arrested during a school raid, what happens next? They may face suspension or expulsion. They may carry the stigma of being labelled a criminal. Their education is disrupted. Their mental health deteriorates. Future job opportunities become limited. In many cases, the very intervention supposedly designed to "save" them ends up pushing them further into isolation and vulnerability.

That is not prevention. That is a policy failure.

Young people who use drugs are not the masterminds of Ghana's drug trade. They are often adolescents navigating peer pressure, trauma, mental health challenges, family instability, academic stress, and social exclusion. Treating them as criminals does nothing to address these underlying realities.

The more worrying question is this: Why is the young population in our schools becoming the face of NACOC's enforcement efforts while the major traffickers and organised criminal networks that fuel the drug trade remain largely out of public view?

It is far easier to stage a raid in a school than to dismantle sophisticated trafficking networks, follow money trails, prosecute drug barons, and disrupt organised crime. One generates headlines; the other delivers real results.

If Ghana is truly concerned about youth drug use, we should pay attention to what works. Iceland once had some of the highest rates of substance use among adolescents in Europe. Rather than criminalising teenagers, the country invested in after-school programs, sports, music, arts, family engagement, and youth development initiatives. Parents were encouraged to spend more time with their children. Communities created safe recreational spaces. Schools became active partners in prevention. The result was a dramatic decline in adolescent substance use over time.

Many universities worldwide have adopted student wellness centers that offer confidential counselling, peer support, mental health services, addiction support, and treatment referrals. Students are encouraged to seek help before problems escalate, not forced into hiding by fear of punishment.

Research consistently demonstrates that young people are less likely to engage in harmful substance use when they feel connected to their families, supported by their schools, engaged in meaningful activities, and able to access mental health services without stigma.

That is why Ghana should be investing in the following:

1. School-based counselling and psychological support services.
2. University wellness and recovery centres and harm reduction services 
3. Peer mentorship and peer-support programs.
4. Comprehensive drug education based on facts rather than fear.
5. Family support and parenting programs.
6. Sports, arts, leadership, and entrepreneurship initiatives for young people.
7. Diversion programs that refer young offenders to counselling and support instead of criminal prosecution.

Parents and communities must also become active partners in prevention. Drug use cannot be addressed through law enforcement alone. Families need the tools to identify early warning signs. Schools need stronger engagement with parents. Religious institutions, traditional leaders, youth groups, and civil society organisations should be helping to create supportive environments where young people can thrive.

The reality is simple! We cannot arrest our way out of youth drug use.

Raiding schools may create the appearance of action. It may produce dramatic photographs and reassuring headlines. But appearance is not impact. Public spectacle is not public policy. The true measure of success is not how many students are arrested. It is how many students are prevented from using drugs, how many receive support when they need it, and how many are allowed to build productive lives.

Our schools should be places of learning, growth, guidance, and second chances, not stages for performative displays of enforcement. The future leaders of Ghana are sitting in those classrooms today. If our response to their vulnerabilities is handcuffs and criminal records, we are not protecting them; we are failing them.

And no amount of showmanship can disguise that reality!