Kuwait criminalizes ‘Spice’ drug; MoH okays magnetic birth docus – ‘Health’ launches 4-month training program on saving lives

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KUWAIT CITY, Sept 2, (KUNA): Trading or dealing in chemical substance, the drug known as “Spice,” have been classified as criminal offense in the State of Kuwait. Assistant Undersecretary for Legal Affairs at the Ministry of Health Dr Mahmoud Al-Abdulhadi told KUNA Friday that the ministry’s senior officials along with their counterparts at the Ministry of Interior have held several intensive meetings which ended by criminalizing the substance. Dr Al-Abdulhadi said that Minister of Health Dr Ali Saad Al-Obaidi signed and issued the order before two days, and that it will be published in the official newspaper next week.

Substances
He added “the substances that are used by some of our youth have been categorized into six chemical groups, where the derivatives have reached 1,500 substances extracted from the drug.” Dr Abdulhadi noted that substances were legal in the past.

However, “now their usage has been criminalized like other drugs such as cocaine, heroin, captagon and pethidine.” Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health endorsed the magnetic birth certificate sample in a preliminary step towards its issuance by the end of this year.

Assistant Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Sector Dr Mahmoud Abdulhadi made the announcement in a statement to the press after his meeting with the Legal Department officials recently. He disclosed they also discussed the activation of electronic mailing and e-stamps to be implemented in all the legal units at the ministry. During the meeting, the officials talked about the future plans of the sector and several issues like the mechanism for the issuance of health cards to retirees and ways to overcome obstacles that people might face in obtaining magnetic birth certificates.

Tackled
They also tackled the development and executive plans for the implementation of decisions, removal of hurdles to the advancement of the sector, legal proposals and organizational structure of the ministry. In the meantime, Assistant Undersecretary for Support Medical Services in the Health Ministry Dr Jamal Al-Harbi has launched a four-month national training program on saving lives.

The program will start on Sunday and will conclude by the end of the year, with the participation of 10 percent of the employees in the ministry. Speaking on the sidelines of the launching ceremony, Al-Harbi disclosed the training program is designed for employees of the ministry and it includes 24 sessions. He said each session, which will be conducted for two days, can accommodate maximum of nine participants as per the recommendation of the American Heart Association.

He added the number of trained staff in various ministries and government establishments reached 2,000 including some employees from the private sector. He revealed that in 2014, there were 607 participants and this number increased to 1,090 in 2015 whereas in the last seven months, the number exceeded 800 and it is expected to reach thousands in 2016.

Meanwhile, Minister of Health Ali Al-Obeidi has passed ministerial decision No. 233/2016 to add the drug known as ‘Chemical’ and its derivatives in the list of banned drugs and brain stimulants, reports Al-Rai daily. Assistant Undersecretary for Medicines and Medical Equipment Affairs Dr Omar Al-Sayed said in a statement that the decision lists ‘Chemical’ drug and its derivatives in the list of brain stimulants that have been classified into six categories based on their chemical components and derivatives.

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