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The mysterious metamorphosis of 1,020 grams of cocaine into sodium bicarbonate in a controversial court case involving the Police, the Prosecution, the Defence and the Judiciary last week is still making the headlines. It seems the biggest enemy to the fight against the drug menace in Ghana is not entirely the lack of competent personnel to handle the issue, but rather the dodgy partisan-political approach to any discussion and handling of the drug menace. The largest opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) feels vindicated and maintains that attempts by the National Democratic Congress to continue to label them as Narcotic Peddlers Party has fallen flat in their face after a cocaine exhibit turned into sodium bicarbonate. The NDC has always cited the 77 parcels of cocaine retrieved from the MV Benjamin vessel which later turned into cassava powder (konkonte) in 2007 as an attestation of the NPP�s endorsement of the narcotic trade in the country. Indeed the NPP finds the latest cocaine hoax a perfect platform to pay back the NDC, who prior to the 2008 elections, accused them (NPP) of virtually benefitting from proceeds of cocaine sale, with the NDC even going to the extent of saying that some leading members of the NPP, including its presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, are engaged in the drug trade. To the NPP, it is not out of place if they pounce on the current cocaine-trial fiasco, which has happened during this NDC administration, and use it in the same fashion the NDC dealt out to the NPP. But the NDC claim that unlike the NPP days, the Mills-Mahama government acted very swiftly to unravel the mystery behind the cocaine-turned-washing soda by instituting committees to investigate the issue. Speaking to the issue on JoyFM�s news analysis programme, �Newsfile�, Editor-In-Chief of the �New Crusading Guide�, Malik Kweku Baako, posited that the nation might lose the war against the drug menace, because of the penchant to just apportion blame to suit one�s political biases. Resisting the temptation to go in a certain direction during his submission, the Senior Journalist however pointed out that if �one was to itemize the specifics, between 1994 to 1999, 300 drug-related cases were not properly or adequately prosecuted or not prosecuted at all.� ��.it was not the government directly, deliberately, consciously doing it. In my candid opinion, that�s not the judgment I�m making. This (the drug trade) is a phenomenon and the more you deal with or do not deal with it properly, the people grow wings�From 1970 to today, we have been challenged by this particular menace�,� he said.