ABU DHABI // Too few specialists, a shortage of treatment facilities and reluctance to admit when a family member has a problem are all hampering efforts to help drug addicts.
The single drug rehabilitation centre has only 28 beds and does not admit women, said Dr Hamad al Ghaferi, general director of the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) in Abu Dhabi.
"There used to be one in Dubai, which closed," he said yesterday, "and our Abu Dhabi centre admits or treats only Emirati men above the age of 18."
The NRC treats about 50 outpatients a month. There are plans to open a bigger centre that will serve women by 2014, but until then options are limited.
The attitude of families in the Middle East can be an obstacle to successful treatment, said Dr Nasser Loza, a psychiatrist and mental health specialist at Egypt's Ministry of Health.
"We Arabs tend to protect our family members. We don't tell anyone if a husband or son or uncle or sister is using drugs or are addicted. We hide it because we are afraid of the stigma and that just exacerbates the problem," he said.
Drug addicts can seek treatment at facilities such as Al Amal Psychiatric Hospital in Dubai or Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in the capital, but only for narcotic-related withdrawal symptoms, not comprehensive rehabilitation.
"We need more centres, and we really need more staff," Dr al Ghaferi said.
The NRC began trying to recruit more Emiratis to the programme two years ago but it was an uphill struggle, he said.
"We are better off than other countries in the region, but there is a lack of specialists, whether social workers or psychiatrists or psychologists or rehab clinicians," he said at the opening of the two-day Regional Forum of the International Drug Policy Consortium, the first of its kind to be held in the Gulf.
The lack of data collection and research studies that focus on the region represent another challenge to both treatment and prevention, said Prof Johannes Thrul, from the Institute of Prevention Research in Germany.
What is applicable to countries in the West, where most of the studies on addiction are conducted, often do not apply to the culturally different countries of the Middle East, he said.
To address this, the UAE has recently signed a five-year agreement with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to conduct a comprehensive analysis of drug addiction and treatment shortages, Dr al Ghaferi said.
"When the study is ready we will be able to assess the intensity of the problem," he said.
Dr Aamir Hassan, supervisor of controlled medicines at the registration and drug control department of the Ministry of Health, said the main problem the UAE faced with drug control was "prescription shopping" by patients who obtained prescription drugs from more than one pharmacy.
"We need to link clinics and pharmacies and make sure all medical records are electronically entered so patients can't end up with more than one prescription to abuse," he said.
This problem is common across the Middle East. Elie Lahoud, president and founder of the Youth for Drug Enforcement society in Lebanon, said there was a need to alert doctors and pharmacists to the harm they caused patients by turning a blind eye to the practice.
"There will always be drug abuse in every country or society, so our focus is to find ways to reduce the harm caused," he said.
Involving the family and educating healthcare professionals was one way to help, he said.
hkhalaf@thenational.ae
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Ruwais timeline
1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established
1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants
1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed
1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.
1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex
2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea
2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd
2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens
2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies
2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export
2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.
2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery
2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital
2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13
Source: The National
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My advice is to only go there if you have unusually sweet tooth. I like my puddings, but this was a bit much even for me. The first hit is a winner, but it's downhill, slowly, from there. Each sip is a little less satisfying than the last, and maybe it was just all that sugar, but it isn't long before the rush is replaced by a creeping remorse. And half of the thing is still left.
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Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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2/5
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Tiger:independent, successful, volatile
Rat:witty, creative, charming
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Monkey:family-orientated, clever, playful
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Dog:loyal, kind, perfectionist
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