It is unfortunate that once again in Kuwait, the issue of drugs abuse, possession and smuggling – has not only shown its ugly face, but has devastating effect on society.
The 37th conference of the National Awareness Project for Drug Prevention (Grass), which was organized in cooperation with the International Organization for Women Empowerment and Capacity Building, under the title ‘Kuwaiti Trainers Without Borders’ team, with support from the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) shed light on the abuse of drugs and how Kuwait is now no longer just a transit point for drug trafficking, as it was in the past, but rather has become a target point for drug traffickers.
A total of 26 papers that were presented during the conference which was attended by about 150 people interested in this issue show how societies are devastated by the menace of drug consumption.
A visual presentation at the conference showed how Kuwait, according to the latest statistics for the last five years, is flooded with hashish, shabu, chemical and marijuana, while the number of drug cases, according to the statistics of the last five years, reached 9,787, including possession with intent to use and trafficking.
The President of the Conference and CEO of the National Project for Drug Prevention (Grass) Dr. Ahmed Al-Shatti stressed that “the fight against drugs is a societal responsibility in which everyone takes part,” adding, “We were cut off for two years due to pandemic, but now we are returning with force, amid the participation of Arab and American working papers, which simulate challenges and needs, and we need to assess the current situation and know strengths and weaknesses, types of treatment and typical drug-related diseases.”
He pointed out that “international statistics indicate that the number of drug users has reached nearly 5 percent of the world’s population, and this calls us to work more to confront this danger,” noting that “a Lebanese working paper showed that 5 percent of schoolchildren between the ages of 13 to 15-year-olds have tried drugs once, and 70 percent of them still use drugs.”
The paper showed, “In Kuwait, there is an increase number of seizures, the number of drug cases in the Ministry of Justice, and the number of active files in the addiction treatment center,” pointing out that “one of the papers that has been submitted indicated that there were 24,000 cases that were transferred to the addiction management laboratory or forensic medicine from 2015 to 2018.
He said, “In Kuwait, there are indicators more than numbers, for the difficulty of registering some due to stigma or the impact on the chances of appointment, while the latest statistics indicate that there are 20,000 active files in the Ministry of Health,” noting that “new types of chemical drugs pose a global challenge.”
The United Nations report says that the Gulf is targeted by what it calls the ‘dumping ground’ adding, “Although abuse globally starts from the age of about 13, there is a working paper that talks about the hidden pandemic, which is about elderly drug users, whose number has reached 700 million people over the 65″.
President of the International Organization for Women Empowerment and Capacity Building, Ibtisam Al-Qaoud, said, “I would like to thank the sponsors who contributed to making this conference a reality, as well as the honorable attendance from inside and outside Kuwait,” noting that “we continue to strive to protect our youth from drugs and their pests, and we hope that this will be crowned with success.
During the conference the following was highlighted:
About 500 billion dollars globally, the third after oil and arms
Approximately 5% of the world’s population is drug users
There were about 275 million users in 2021 globally
Caused about half a million deaths in 2019
Most deaths are due to (benzodiazepines) if they are mixed with heroin, and the most prevalent and most common is Captagon, marijuana and cannabis.
There are 900 kinds of synthetic drugs that contain chemicals, which destroy the cells of the body; there was 71 percent increase in deaths due to opium and its derivatives, in the last ten years.
Al-Shatti stated that Kuwait is one of the first countries to respond to the urgent call of the United Nations to work to combat drug trafficking and abuse, through exchange of information and developing strategies to confront the scourge, and allocating large budgets for prevention, control and treatment.
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