Yemen needs more drug awareness campaigns

Women and girls were strongly involved in sending a ‘zero tolerance’ against drugs.

Drug usage and drug addicts in Yemen are phenomena that have increased recently although, like many other issues in Yemen, the number of addicts in the country is not known due to a lack of official statistics. Awareness programs through the media, schools or homes are also missing.

Last Thursday the planet celebrated World Day of Combating Drugs (WDCD). In Yemen the Ministry of Interior celebrated this day calling on society to fight drugs and to report any drug-dealing to protect younger generations. General Manager of Programs at Sana’a Radio Station, Ali al-Syani, said that the media have to play a vital role to combat the problem of drugs and admits that there is a deficiency in media programs about drugs and their social and economic dangers. “It is very difficult to get statistics about this problem and this sometimes hinder us from covering it, but we in Sana’a Radio have many family programs that deal with the risks of drugs,” al-Syani told the Yemen Observer.

“This year we covered the WDCD and we met with many experts in this area who found the quantities of drugs being seized by the authorities horrifying, showing that this issue has to be dealt with seriously,” al-Syani said. He explained – and many others agreed with him – that Yemen is still a passing-through station for drug dealers to reach other neighboring countries, the Gulf in particular, and that the number of drug users actually in Yemen is very limited.

Al-Syani said that this issue is treated through many programs on Sana’a Radio Station, and called on other media outlets to shed more light on this issue that demands more attention before it deteriorates.

Minister of Interior, Staff Major General Mutaher Rashad al-Musri, said that celebrating the WDCD in Yemen is a call to society to be cautious and careful about drugs and their consequences, from which Yemen can never be entirely insulated. In his speech during the event, he said that raising awareness has to be extensive especially among younger generations. He urged people to join forces to fight drugs, which is not only the responsibility of the government but also of individuals, civil society organizations and the media. He said that family, school, and society have to stand against drugs. Al-Musri promised that the ministry will deal with those who trade with drugs and punish them according to the law.

Deputy Minister of Guidance and Endowment, Hassan Abdullah al-Sheikh, talked about the importance of raising awareness amongst youths on the dangers of drugs. He spoke of the important role that religious scholars have to play in preaching about this problem.

Head of the Combating Drugs Unit in the Ministry of Interior, Colonel Khaled Mutaher, said that the unit is working very hard to investigate and monitor the trade to stop the spread of drugs and hunt those who traffic it to neighboring countries. He said that in the first half of this year, 19 tons of hashish and millions of drug pills were seized.

Pratibah Mehta, Resident Coordinator and Resident Representative of UNDP said that efforts in the past decade have deepened people’s understanding of the dangers that drugs have and the threat they pose on any society. “All people have a responsibility in the fight against drugs,” Mehta stressed. 

Apart from this, many young people believe that awareness is far from being enough as the majority of parents cannot or do not take the effort to learn about drug addiction symptoms. “Parents in Yemen have to learn about symptoms of drug addiction, but who will communicate this, especially to illiterate parents. This is one of the main problems because they do not even ask about their children’s’ schooling,” said Walid Mutaher, 23, a university graduate.   

Dr. Adel al-Sharjabi, a professor of sociology at Sana’a University, explained that the reasons for the increasing number of hashish smokers in Yemen, especially youths, are related to the fact that usually when men feel disappointed and surrounded by failure and have minimal education, they will resort to drugs to soften their pain.

Yemeni youths and school children lead demonstrations and ceremonies on the occasion of the World Day of Combating Drugs.

“When educational institutions cannot employ young people’s abilities and to give them a voice to express what they want, they open a large door to delinquency,” he said. “The political voice of the youth does not reach the decision makers, so this leads to psychologically frustrated people who resort to the dangerous smoke of a plant.”

“The moral and religious education of the family plays a crucial role in how young people deal with such bad behaviors,” he stated. “If the family is based on dialogue, education and the healthy development of their children, drugs will be a big mistake in their eyes,” he added.

Previously the Minister of Interior revealed during WDCD that the al-Huthi tribe from Sa’adah, in the north of the country, uses drugs to fund their war against the government, indicating that drug addicts have spread among those who were seduced to join the rebellion, most of whom were young.

Investigations into those who were arrested from the rebellion found drug addicts who stated that al-Huthi rebellion is using drugs to exploit them and use them in their terrorist attacks.

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