Abu Dhabi will put treatment for users and education for families at the heart of a new policy to tackle the scourge of drugs.
A number of government agencies will seek to limit access to illegal substances, while ensuring addicts are treated rather than punished.
Officials said that confidentiality for families and addicts is a major focus.
Dr Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili, chairman of the Department of Community Development, said a multi-agency response would "help in early identification of cases ... and ensure social reintegration of recovering substance users".
We cannot leave our children to fall victim to these dealers
Dr Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili,
Department of Community Development
Speaking in Abu Dhabi on Monday, he said the aim was “to reduce the demand and addiction rates and to protect our children. We cannot leave our children to fall victim to these dealers."
Although drug use in the Gulf tends to be much lower than in Europe and North America, it is a major market for dealers.
An investigation by The National last year showed amphetamines, such as Captagon, were flooding into the Gulf, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt, mostly in shipments from Syria.
Fear of asking for help
Under the theme of ‘A Community Safe from Addiction’, the new strategy has several main objectives — preventing substance use, enabling early identification and intervention, providing appropriate treatment to substance users and ensuring fast reintegration of those recovering into their families and society.
For the first time, every government authority will be working together to achieve these goals from the police and schools to hospitals and local clinics.
Dr Layla Al Hayas, executive director of the monitoring and social innovation sector at DCD, said of drug addiction: ”This is a disease where users are prone to relapse. It is a burden on the economy and families. Not every user is an addict but we want to focus on prevention and we don’t want to work in silos."
She said families might have a drug addict at home who refuses to seek treatment for fear of being stigmatised.
“We want to work on providing them help privately without fear of stigma,” she said.
Dr Al Khaili said: “We expect that after enforcing the strategy, it will decrease drug use rates and related deaths and increase the number of people getting treatment."
The UAE recently downgraded penalties for drug and alcohol misuse in some circumstances.
Other legislation allows law enforcement to take a practical approach to people who, in error, may bring small amounts of drugs into the country. This includes products containing cannabis extracts, which have been decriminalised or legalised in a number of countries.
But selling or trafficking drugs can lead to years in jail.
Prosecutors can push for the death penalty for drug dealing, although it is rarely used.
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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- Choose your nursery carefully in the first place
- Relax – and hopefully your child will follow suit
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- If you need some extra time to talk to the teachers, make an appointment a few days in advance, rather than attempting to chat on your child’s first day
- The longer you stay, the more upset your child will become. As difficult as it is, walk away. Say a proper goodbye and reassure your child that you will be back
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