‘Spread of narcotics cause of rise in addicts in country’ – Parents urged to keep watch over children’s activities

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KUWAIT CITY, Dec 30: Kuwait has recorded an alarming rate of drug-related cases in recent years, as the General Drug Control Department in the first three months of 2017 recovered 148 kgs of hashish, 9 kgs of shabu, 3 kgs of heroin, 7 kgs of chemical, a kilogram of opium, and 177,000 narcotic pills. In the same period, 354 lawsuits were filed against suspects who tried to smuggle narcotics into the country.

Official statistics issued by the Ministry of Justice showed 2,383 drug-related lawsuits were filed in 2016, of which 2,283 cases received sentences, noting the number of lawsuits involving drugs exceeded all other types of criminal offenses.

In this concern, Director General of Drug Control Department Brigadier Badr Al-Ghadouri on the sidelines of a recent workshop titled (The relationship between drugs, extremism, and terrorism) disclosed that illicit drug usage was the cause of 333 deaths between 2012 and 2016, while 56 similar deaths were recorded since the beginning of 2017 until September.

He added the Addiction Treatment Center affiliated to Ministry of Health has 1,733 registered inmates, in addition to 11,143 others in outpatients unit. “The center raising its capacity to 3,000 patient points to a growing number of drug addicts in the country”, he noted.

Kuwaiti inventor Engineer Nader Al-Azmi who won several awards for the country stressed the importance of nurturing talents and hobbies among students to protect them from falling into the net of illicit drugs. He stated the need to fill the leisure time of the youth and students in useful hobbies to keep them from experimenting with drugs.

Cleric Saleh Al-Ghanim also said the need to inculcate the principles of religion in the hearts of the youth and encourage them to pray and read the Holy Quran. He also urged parents to keep watch over their children to find out any change in their health or psychological wellbeing in order to deal with issues in the early stages.

By Najeh Bilal Al-Seyassah Staff

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