Chemical drug 'Spice'

KUWAIT: Trading or dealing in the drug known as "Spice" has been classified as a criminal offense in Kuwait. Assistant undersecretary for legal affairs at the Ministry of Health Mahmoud Al-Abdulhadi told KUNA yesterday that the ministry's senior officials along with their counterparts at the Ministry of Interior held several intensive meetings, which ended by criminalizing the substance.

Dr Abdulhadi said that Minister of Health Dr Ali Saad Al-Obaidi signed and issued the order two days earlier, and that it will be published in the official gazette next week. He added "the substances that are used by some of our youth have been categorized into six chemical groups, while the derivatives have reached 1,500 substances extracted from the drug". Abdulhadi noted that these substances were legal in the past. However, "now their usage has been criminalized like other drugs such as cocaine, heroin, Captagon and pethidine". - KUNA