Health sources say the obligation to conduct pre-marital examinations to ensure both partners who will tie the knot and sound from the health point of view has encountered several obstacles. This comes amid the increasing number of crimes associated with addiction to narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, including murder, suicide and violence, and the occurrence of divorce and separation between spouses and with the many demands calling for the need to conduct examinations.
A local Arabic daily has learned the mandatory drug test has previously been implemented in more than one Gulf country, but it faced family problems and social objections. The sources pointed out that conducting examinations to detect the abusers of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances before marriage faces some problems, including the fact that the abuse of these substances is considered a scourge that a person has suffered from, not a disease, pointing out that through scientific research, it has been found that all types of narcotic substances the body can get rid of within days, which the abuser may exploit by conducting a pre-marital examination to obtain a certificate issued by a government agency valid for a period of 6 months, that he is a healthy person. For the abuser to reach this stage, he/she only has to stop the use for several days before conducting the examination.
The sources indicated that the Ministry of Health, through specialists from the Social Health Department, had previously held meetings with some members of the National Assembly in this regard, indicating that a series of obstacles and reservations were reviewed regarding conducting these examinations, adding that their application in some Gulf countries witnessed the occurrence of health and social problems and obstacles in those countries.
The sources stated that the pre-marital examination centers of the Ministry of Health, through their five locations in the Al-Sabah Medical District, Jahra, Khaitan, Hitteen and Mubarak Al-Kabeer, are committed to conducting health checks, not behavioral and moral, which the parties to the marriage must adhere to, and that in the event of applying for marriage, you should ask carefully about the man or the woman, instead of conducting this type of examination related to narcotics.
According to specialized doctors, the words and actions of addicts of narcotics and psychotropic substances have a clear indication and they can be identified by anyone who deals with them, and this matter is usually discovered, stressing the need to raise awareness of the symptoms of addiction, as the addict does not usually live a normal life, but rather regularly causes family, economic, health and social problems in the environment in which the person lives.
The health sources pointed out that drug users can hide their abuse, by taking nutrient solutions before conducting a blood test, especially since the duration of these substances in the blood often does not exceed 72 hours, so that they cannot be detected after a week of stopping their use, explaining that some types of medicines and pain relievers that the Ministry of Health dispenses to some patients are considered psychotropic substances that may also affect the result of the examination before marriage, in addition to the lack of accurate examination devices to detect narcotic substances in public hospitals, due to their high cost, as they are available at the Ministry of Forensic Medicine and the Ministry of Interior only.
5 Obstacles to Compulsory Drug Testing
1 – The high cost of these examinations
2 – Inaccurate test results sometimes
3 – The absence of a specific pattern of genetically transmitted addiction
4 – Tests constitute an additional burden on health facilities
5 – Societal objections to conducting these examinations
The main effects and complications of drug addiction include
• Exposure to health problems and ailments, loss of consciousness, coma and sudden death
• Infection with infectious diseases due to sharing needles
• Exposure to traffic accidents when taking narcotics
• Addiction leads to aggressive behavior and violence
• Fabricating family problems and marital disputes
• Other financial and legal problems faced by the addict
