Chemicals found at Kinapharma not cocaine

Front Page: Daily Graphic, December 12, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
TestS conducted by the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) on the chemicals picked up from Kinapharma Pharmaceutical Company Limited proved negative for cocaine.
The tests were, however, positive for chlordiazepoxide, which is not classified as a narcotic drug under PNDCL 236, 1990.
The test results, signed by Mr K. Acheampong, the Director of the Testing Division of the GSB, were submitted to the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service on Friday night.
According to the Public Affairs Officer of the CID, Chief Inspector J.B. Dankwa, the three officials would, therefore, be released on bail.
It would be recalled that the police last Thursday picked up three top officials of Kinapharma for allegedly possessing substances prohibited under Ghana’s Narcotic Control Law.
The three were the Managing Director, Mr Kofi Nsiah Poku, the Deputy Managing Director, Mrs Nsiah Poku, and the General Manager, Mr Eshun Fameyeh.
They were picked up after a combined team from the CID Headquarters and the Narcotics Control Board identified the substances in a warehouse at the company.
According to sources at the CID Headquarters, a field test on some of the substances tested partially positive for cocaine.
The company, however, insisted that the substances in the parcels were precursors and not cocaine.