● Samuel Yao Kumah desires to get out of drug addiction

Many are of the view that once a person has passed the teenage years, there is no possibility of being influenced by their peers.

However, what happened to Samuel Yao Kumah might make many change their un­derstanding of peer pressure.

In an interview with The Spectator last Thursday at Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region, the 30-year-old Kumah disclosed that five years ago, he was a successful person frequenting some parts of a neighbouring country until he was intro­duced to drugs by some of his friends of the same age.

The mason recalled with tears that he once worked with a company which spe­cialised in building warehous­es and paid him handsomely.

He said the dramatic spiral began when some of his friends started begging him for money to buy drugs, which he did out of kindness.

Yao Kumah said that with time, as he hanged around with them, they convinced him to also have a sniff or two, and just so that he would not offend them, he agreed.

He said unfortunately, with time, he observed that he was to develop a strong ‘love’ for the drug and pa­tronised it, especially when he was alone.

Sadly and unimaginably, with time, Yao Kumah be­came addicted and started investing so much in drugs.

He explained that this was because anytime he failed to take it, he experienced a serious discomfort popular­ly known as “turkey,” and so he had to try as much as possible to have access to it before he could feel normal.

“It affected my output at work, and I also lost interest in everything except drugs,” he said.

According to Yao Kumah, gradually he started losing so much, including his job, wife, savings and even some properties.

He said he was forever grateful to one of his broth­ers, who advised him to buy land and build a house when he had the means.

“But for him, I would have been homeless by now,” he recalled.

He said some families and friends had tried to caution him, but their pieces of advice came at a time when he was too neck-deep in it to turn back.

Yao Kumah said he regret­ted not staying away from such friends of bad influence and felt bad each time he remembered how he allowed himself to be destroyed so easily.

He currently tries to patch roads with potholes to earn some income or beg from road users to survive and take care of his three children, who live with his mother in the Volta Region.

Yao Kumah said his stron­gest desire was to stop doing drugs, get a decent job to take care of his children and restore his dignity.

He called on public-spirit­ed people to help him to go to a rehabilitation centre to get professional help to get off drugs.

The mason said he had tried on his own to quit drugs, but the situation had gone beyond the use of will­power to get out of it.

He advised the youth to avoid bad company because it was true that evil company corrupted good manners, so that they would not end up like him.

“On this note, let me take the opportunity to advise families and friends not to abandon their loved ones when they become drug ad­dicts but rather support them in any way they can to bring them out of the mess they have found themselves in.

“Indeed, I feel bad when­ever I look back at how I had fallen, but I felt worse when people passed by and insult­ed or humiliated me,” Yao Kumah said.

He said he was ready to avail himself to talk to people to stay away from bad company and drugs, using his life as an example.

 From Dzifa Tetteh Tay, Ashaiman