Ghana's drug economy: some preliminary data

Ghana's drug economy is relatively recent. Cannabis cultivation and trade, for domestic consumption and export, appears to have expanded significantly only since the 1960s. The transit/re‐export of cocaine and heroin is a phenomenon of the 1980s, with the usual ‘spillover’ effect, and extension of their consumption to a wider social range of users than is commonly believed. The cannabis economy no doubt provides important sources of income for significant numbers of farmers and intermediaries in the chain of distribution. Large rewards for smuggling cocaine and heroin facilitate the recruitment of couriers, despite the high risks. While it is fatuous to suggest any simple or necessary connection between socioeconomic conditions and the nature, extent and patterns of drug production, trafficking and consumption, it can be hypothesised that the growth of the drug economy in Ghana has some relation to the enduring crisis of development and livelihoods, and its effects for social change. The drug economy in Africa today is probably one of the most dynamic and valuable spheres of ‘non‐traditional’ exports and re‐exports.