Efforts to combat drug addiction

Al-Ahram Weekly

11-02-2025

Efforts are continuing to provide help and medical treatment to those affected by drug abuse in Egypt, while tightening up penalties for traffickers, writes Nashwa Farouk
The recent arrest of an Egyptian journalist and her foreign boyfriend as they were hiding in a villa in New Cairo in possession of more than 180 litres of the date rape drug GHP worth LE145 million has raised public concerns about drug-trafficking in Egypt.
Security investigations confirmed that the defendants bought the drug from a website headquartered in a foreign country before it was shipped to yet another foreign country, ultimately landing in Egypt in the camouflaged packages of a detergent brand.
Only a few weeks later, people woke up to the news of the arrest of 36-year-old Egyptian actor Haitham Mohamed in an apartment in the Talbia area of Cairo in possession of heroin. Mohamed was previously caught in 2017 on charges of heroin abuse but was acquitted of charges of possession.
These incidents and others have raised public concerns about earlier official statements referring to a decline in drug abuse in Egypt between 2015 and 2020. According to the Egyptian Fund for Drug Control and Treatment of Addiction (FDCTA), drug abuse rates were close to international levels in 2020, compared to 2015 when the rate was double the global average.
According to earlier statements by Amr Osman, the FDCTA director and an assistant to the minister of social solidarity, 5.9 per cent of people aged 12 to 60 abused drugs in 2020, down from 10 per cent in 2014.
The rate of drug addiction among the same age group was 2.4 per cent in 2020, according to surveys conducted by the Fund.
'The rate of drug abuse among state employees has dropped from eight per cent in 2019 to 0.5 per cent currently thanks to a campaign of early detection that started in 2019,' Osman told the media in an event held at the time of the report. 'The rate of drug abuse among school bus drivers also dropped from 12 per cent in 2017 to 0.8 per cent in 2020.'
It remains questionable whether these rates remained constant or saw a spike in the following years, however. Many cases of drug abuse remain unknown since many people decline to seek help.
There is no official record of the current number of addicts in Egypt, but a recent report by Minister of Social Solidarity and Chairperson of the FDCTA Nevine Al-Qabbaj showed that 66,147 patients (new and follow-up) sought addiction treatment and counselling services via the hotline of the fund.
One finding of the report is that 8,208 from the total number of those who sought help came from impoverished areas, which indicates that drug abuse is not just an issue related to the affluent classes who can afford to buy narcotics.
Equally intriguing, perhaps, is the fact that 15.81 per cent of patients started using substances between the ages of 15 and 20, 38.23 per cent between 21 and 30, and 37.93 per cent between 31 and 40.
The most commonly abused substances, according to the report, include cannabis, heroin, and synthetic drugs like strox, voodoo, poder, shabo, and tramadol. Some users use multiple substances.
According to the 2020 survey conducted by the fund, the reasons people abuse drugs included peer pressure (35.2 per cent), stress (34.8 per cent), depression (30.6 per cent), to help them work for longer periods (29.1 per cent), and to give them confidence (24.9 per cent), Osman said.
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS: Stress and peer pressure seemed to be the main reasons behind Ahmed's addiction journey.
'It all started with a cigarette that a friend gave me on the first night I decided to stay up late with a group friends,' Ahmed (not his real name) said.
'I had never smoked before, so I did not realise that the cigarette tasted different. I started coughing and felt like suffocating. I went on trying. Once done, my friend confessed it was hashish, not tobacco.'
Ahmed had already been suffering from family rifts, and his friends convinced him that hashish would help him cope with his problems.
'My parents were always quarreling and seemed to vent their frustration on my sister and me, so I thought perhaps I needed an escape. I used to go out a lot and then found that hashish would perhaps help me escape to another world. I felt high on hashish cigarettes.'
But, for Ahmed, like for many others, it did not stop at hashish. He started to seek another high, and he went into a vicious circle of using heroine which was the beginning of his total collapse.
'My condition worsened, particularly in education, and I stopped going to college,' he went on. 'I was totally trapped in getting drugs and I spent most of my time with co-addicts, who were mainly college mates. Soon the money my father used to give me for my expenses was not enough to get a better high, and I had no other choice but to steal from my mother, father, and sister to be able to get what I needed.'
'I reached the stage when nothing gave me the mood I needed, and I resorted to narcotic injections that dealers suggested in my case. Every time the dealers would suggest a different substance, and my family did not notice anything, as usual.'
A year later, however, Ahmed's deteriorating state was evident enough to his family for them to finally notice. They resorted to a forced admission in a rehabilitation centre for addiction, but this did not work for Ahmed in the beginning.
'At first, I did not want to get treated because I felt drugs were the only way to escape the world,' Ahmed went on. 'I escaped twice. But soon I realised I had to get treated, and I went to the rehabilitation centre myself. The withdrawal symptoms were harsh, but with patience and determination I could get over it.'
Peer pressure was similarly the reason why 38-year-old Ayman (not his real name) turned to addiction 15 years ago, despite the fact that he hailed from a modest family who could not afford it. While not having enough money to buy drugs himself, Ayman was offered them via a wealthy friend.
'We started taking cannabis, but we sought a better high so we went for hallucinogenic pills like LCD and Ecstasy XTC, which are known for producing happiness. Then we turned to taking heroin, and my friend paid for it until I found myself stuck in a vicious circle of no escape.'
'Addiction turned me into a vicious and violent person,' Ayman went on. 'I started to beat my sisters, and my mother couldn't take it and grieved to death. Her death was like a wake-up call for me, and I decided to help myself recover.'
'Cutting off relations with bad friends was the first step on the right track,' he went on. 'Then I went to one of the government treatment clinics, where I was welcomed and received proper treatment until I totally recovered.'
That harsh experience marked a turning point in Ayman's life as he decided to volunteer and work in rehabilitation centres to help addicts going through similar experiences.
In the same vein, a recovered Ahmed said he had cut off relations with 'bad friends' and got closer to God. He would now advise every parent to 'take care of [their] children and watch them with love and fear because the world outside is scary and drugs have become easily available.'
RISING THREAT: Ahmed has a point. The 2024 World Drug Report showed that the number of people using illicit drugs worldwide rose to 292 million in 2022, an increase of 20 per cent over a decade.
The report pointed out that most users worldwide consume cannabis, estimated at about 228 million people, while 60 million people worldwide consume opioids, 30 million amphetamines, 23 million cocaine, and 20 million ecstasy. It warned that there has been an increase in deaths from overdoses following the emergence of nitazines, a group of synthetic opioids that may be more dangerous than fentanyl, in many high-income countries.
Egypt may not be much different, however. Hassan Moussa, a researcher in sociology at Alexandria University, says that 'every day poses a new threat to youth in the presence of modern developments.'
Forms of addiction have developed, and young people who begin with simple drugs like hashish may soon try substances such as shabo, ice, strox, opiates, cocaine, heroine, and others in search of a better high.
'Addicts can get into a vicious circle until they find themselves facing death,' Moussa said.
He suggested that addiction is deeply rooted in the psychological and social conditions surrounding addicts as well as in the accessibility of drugs across all social strata. 'Technology has helped to make drugs more readily available, since people can now order them online and have them delivered,' Moussa said.
Such online access to drugs has made it even more difficult for many parents to spot them.
'I never imagined that I would be the mother of an addict one day,' cried one Cairo housewife and the mother of a recovered addict who asked to have her name withheld. 'I had a nervous breakdown when I found out about my son's addiction. I felt like the world had stopped at that point,' she said.
Her son was enrolled in an international university in Cairo. 'He was polite and well-bred, but he made bad friends at the university who dragged him onto that deadly path,' his mother said, adding that she had sent her son to a private clinic in Alexandria where he had received treatment for two months and recovered.
The mother would now advise all parents to watch out for their children since drugs are readily available in some colleges.
Although peer pressure and stress have always been referred to as prime causes behind the spread of narcotics, it is important to realise that those suffering from mental illness are also among the most vulnerable to drug abuse.
Psychologist Ahmed Al-Omda said that 'some psychiatric patients can turn into addicts because of their addiction to drugs that affect the mind.'
'Many psychiatric patients feel a sense of delusional victory when they are under the spell of drugs that provide a sense of satisfaction, euphoria, and happiness, and they may soon get hooked to that sense,' he explained.
Pharmacist Hozayfa Hammam, who obtained his MA in mental health and runs a private centre for the rehabilitation of drug addicts, concurred.
'Young people can fall into addiction due to multiple factors, one of the most important being that they may lack psychological immunity and the ability to adapt to external pressures and problems,' he said.
'In the absence of family support, this can produce a fragile person lacking in confidence and unable to deal with challenges.'
According to Hammam, parents have a crucial role to play in this respect. 'Parents should show a more flexible and understanding attitude when dealing with their children to avoid bringing up dependent personalities who can easily fall prey to bad peer pressure,' he elaborated.
There are many reasons why young people may resort to addiction, he said.
'Broken family ties and the absence of social support groups are prime reasons behind the spread of this phenomenon,' he went on. 'Some addicts may have also been exposed to psychological abuse during childhood. Such factors could create psychologically fragile characters and increase their susceptibility to falling into the trap of addiction where they find a temporary escape from reality.'
Family awareness is thus crucial in this respect, Hammam said. 'Parents should monitor their kids and resort to specialists if they notice any behavioural changes that should be immediately addressed,' he added.
'The state is doing its bit by providing centres for addiction treatment through the Fund to Combat Addiction and Abuse,' Hammam went on. 'The fund also provides a free hotline for addiction treatment, and it treated more than 177,000 people in 2023 alone, according to a recent report.'
Like many specialists working in the field, however, Hammam insists that the scale of addiction in Egypt is larger than that indicated by the official figures since 'only a small percentage of addicts seek help, and this makes the real number unknown.'
'Most addicts do not seek treatment because they can be overwhelmed by the fear of abstaining from drugs,' he said.
STATE EFFORTS: Every year, the Ministry of Interior intensifies its efforts in pursuing drug dealers.
These efforts have yielded tangible results, as indicated by the statistics announced by the ministry for 2023. During that year, the police arrested more than 40,000 drug dealers and seized more than 100 tons of narcotic substances, including tramadol, hashish, and heroin, which were destined for local markets, the report said.
The ministry has also concluded a number of agreements with neighbouring countries and international organisations engaged in combating drug-trafficking, such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in order to exchange information and experiences in confronting it.
In the meantime, laws have been passed to combat drug-dealing. Lawyer Mohamed Suleiman said that 'Article 39 of the Penal Code imposes a penalty of no less than one year in prison and a fine of no less than LE1,000 and not exceeding LE3,000 for anyone caught abusing narcotics.'
Harsher penalties can be imposed if the defendant is arrested while possessing cocaine, heroin, or any other drug listed in Section 1 of Schedule 1 of narcotic drugs.
Shaima Rashid, a researcher in the Department of Strategic Issues at the cabinet-affiliated Information and Decision Support Centre, applauded government efforts to combat drug abuse.
According to Rashid, the Fund for Combating and Treating Addiction and Abuse was established in 1991 to unify efforts in this regard, and its aim is to curb drug abuse through various programmes and mechanisms that rely on prevention, on the one hand, and extending help and treatment for abusers, on the other.
Prevention programmes aim to raise awareness of the dangers of drug abuse across different social groups through theatre performances, scientific seminars and workshops, research competitions, online awareness campaigns, youth camps, and training to prepare leaders and young volunteers.
One of the most prominent awareness programmes produces media campaigns emphasising the dangers of drugs. 'You are Stronger than Drugs' is the slogan used for one of these campaigns that has received a high viewership rate on social media.
The campaign has received some 162 million views and has increased the number of subscribers on the fund's official Facebook page to two million.
Another campaign, titled 'Drugs, their Journey is Short', has received a record of 33 million views on social media. It has also led to a 400 per cent increase in the number of people calling the fund's hotline to seek help or save their loved ones from addiction.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 13 February, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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