ShareKUWAIT: Participants in a dialogue session organized by KUNA on Tuesday under the title 'Drugs Are Your Doom', emphasized the importance of concerted efforts by the competent authorities to combat and reduce drugs by spreading a societal culture to prevent the danger of addiction. The speakers in the session, which was moderated by the Director General of KUNA, Dr Fatima Al-Salem, said that the media has an important role in highlighting the dangers of drug addiction and its impact on psychological, health and family behavior.
The CEO of the National Project for Drug Prevention (Ghiras), Dr Ahmed Al-Shatti, said in his intervention at the session that there are signs of addiction, including whispering during communication, the loss of some belongings from the home, the low-level of education, lack of care for personal hygiene, and other things that the family notices.
Al-Shatti added that the family is the cornerstone of addiction treatment. He pointed out that during the days of the total ban during the COVID-19 pandemic, many families discovered their children's addiction after closely observing their condition and the change in their behavior, indicating that the necessary assistance was provided to some of these families to address these cases.
He explained that there are physical manifestations represented in clear signs on the body of the drug user, including the presence of signs of drug abuse on the arms, a change in appetite and weight loss, in addition to stress and insomnia on an ongoing basis. He mentioned that there are also behavioral manifestations represented in the person's dealing patterns after drug use, which is isolation and introversion, as the isolation is in two stages at the beginning of the addiction stage and is caused by fear of the family.
In the second stage the family environment is no longer the appropriate environment for this person. He stated that the isolation in the second stage is due to his companion with a group of addicts, as he communicates directly with those who support him in the behavior of abuse and the promoters, and the consequent negligence in the outward appearance, failure to perform duties and making excuses. He indicated that the national project Ghiras has worked in organizing many courses, including the smart parenting course, which is related to how to deal with addiction and confront it, and increase the family's awareness of dealing with the addict and how to pressure him to receive treatment to get rid of this scourge that kills.
Head of the Psychological Service Unit at the Addiction Treatment Center of the Ministry of Health, Yacoub Al-Shatti, said in his speech at the session that there are signs that precede addiction phase, clear signs, and a general deterioration in all aspects of the addict's life at the academic, practical, intellectual and behavioral levels, stressing that these are warnings that precede a drug disaster. Al-Shatti mentioned that the issue of addiction is a shared responsibility for all members of society, pointing out that the state provides its services through addiction treatment centers and awareness-raising through mosques and lectures, in addition to the role of addiction centers in providing real treatment for addicts.
Dr Amthal Al-HuwailaProfessor of Psychology at Kuwait University, Dr Amthal Al-Huwaila, said in her speech at the session that addiction is one of the thorny, old and constantly renewed issues, stressing the importance of recognizing the existence of the problem of addiction and knowing its limits and real statistics. Al-Huwaila called for the need to unite the efforts of governmental and private institutions and to develop general and innovative policies and strategies for ways to prevent addiction, noting the danger of social media and its role in addiction and promotion, and its ability to reach different age groups more quickly than traditional media.
She pointed out that preventive campaigns need a societal culture among individuals in order to pay attention to the seriousness of this problem and to detect symptoms of addiction in a family member at an early stage, in addition to the importance of appropriateness of the campaign method and its information to the targeted age groups.
She stressed that the harm of the addict does not only fall on the person and his family, but extends to the society and the state and its social security, explaining the importance of supporting the role of the family and building it to confront external influences that target young people everywhere, in addition to supporting the state agencies and institutions to play their assigned role in this regard. She reported that the spread of drugs in recent years has taken many innovative forms in ways of promoting and delivering them, indicating the ability of many types of modern drugs to damage brain cells and merge with its components.
The representative of the General Department for Drug Control at the Ministry of Interior, Lieutenant Colonel Muhammad Al-Ardhi, said in his speech that the scourge of drugs is a war that crosses continents and must be addressed through plans and strategies to dry up its sources and limit its spread in the country. Al-Ardhi explained that the administration has intensified field operations in recent years to control drug dealers and promoters, as well as expanding international coordination and cooperation with countries and establishing offices at the land, sea and air borders to control smugglers through coordination and cooperation with the General Administration of Customs. He stated that the administration has launched a number of programs targeting school, institute and university students and the rest of the community to raise awareness of the harmful effects of drugs, through community development centers spread across the country.
He added that the administration recently developed a program that touches the segment arrested by the administration on charges of drug abuse, benefiting from their presence to understand the reasons and factors that led them to drug abuse and help them in treatment and prevention from its danger. Al-Ardhi indicated that the substances that are used in drug abuse are diverse and different, as some of them are natural and others are chemical, in addition to medical drugs that are used without a prescription, pointing out that the two substances - shabu and lyrica - are the most seized substances with drug users.
He praised the efforts of the Ministry of Interior and other government agencies that contributed to seizing a large number of drugs and their dealers, in addition to bringing down the number of overdose deaths and thwarting attempts to smuggle large quantities into the country.
On the sidelines of the session, a mini-exhibition was held on the tools used in drug abuse, in addition to presenting some narcotic chemicals to see and know to avoid and beware of them. It is noteworthy that KUNA launched last December its awareness media campaign to combat the scourge of drugs under the title 'Drugs Are Your Destruction' through all its news services through specialized and varied materials and different types of media, reaching various segments of public opinion, especially youth. - KUNA
