Drugs threaten Yemen First drug addicts’ sanatorium in Yemen

Life Makers Organization, a non government organization (NGO), has revealed a project to establishing the first sanatorium to treat drug addicts in Yemen. 

“During the last months, we worked to prepare a study for establishing such sanatorium for drug addicts. We also aimed to train a group of specialists in Egypt to be well skilled in dealing with addicts. Another team of young people will be also trained to educate others of hazards resulting from abusing with drugs or being addicts,” said Nabil al-Sadi, Head of the Life Makers Organization.

He also said that 50 young people are being trained to educate people about drug hazards and there is another plan to train 5,000 lecturers on the same goal. Around 70 percent of the schools in Sana’a are involved in the organization’s program of drug hazard education, according to al-Sadi. “Drugs are the hidden war which kills many in this world, and Yemen is not excluded from this disease.”      

The number of drug cases seized during January to May this year, has reached to 44 according to Khaled al-Radhi, the General Director of drug combat in the Ministry of Interior. More than 130 people, including 64 Yemenis, are involved in these cases as smugglers of 19 tons of drugs and 468,104 anesthetic tablets. 

Al-Radhi said that the number of cases during this year is smaller than what was recorded during 2007 (140 drug cases, 226 accused people including 204 Yemenis). However, the quantity of drugs seized in 2007 (4 tons) and in 2006 (2 tons) is very little compared to 19 tons seized during just six months of the current year. 

Head of the Coast Guard Authority, Ali Ras’e, said that all drugs seized by the coast guard during the first six months of this year (12 tons) were on the way to the neighboring Arab Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Ras’e said that drugs smugglers look to Yemen as a special passing point to the other neighboring countries since it has a long coast – 2000 kilometers.

Addiction begins with drug abuse when an individual makes a conscious choice to use drugs, but addiction is not just “a lot of drug use.” Recent scientific research provides overwhelming evidence that not only do drugs interfere with normal brain functioning creating powerful feelings of pleasure, but they also have long-term effects on the brain’s metabolism and activity. At some point, changes occur in the brain that can turn drug abuse into addiction, a chronic, relapsing illness. Those addicted to drugs suffer from a compulsive drug craving and cannot quit by themselves. 

The 2008 World Drug report issued by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), shows that less than one in every twenty people aged 15-64 have tried drugs at least once in the past 12 months. Problem drug users (people with severe drug dependence) are less than one tenth of this already low percentage: 26 million people, or 0.6 percent of the planet’s adult population. 

Compared with figures of legal psychoactive substances – tobacco kills 5 million people a year, alcohol about 2.5 million and illicit drugs around 200,000 a year worldwide – drug statistics show that the drug problem was dramatically reduced over the past century, and has stabilized over the past 10 years.

In December 1987, the General Assembly decided to observe 26 June as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking as an expression of its determination to strengthen action and cooperation to achieve the goal of an international society free of drug abuse. This resolution recommended further action with regard to the report and conclusions of the 1987 International Conference on Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

Yemen also celebrated the World Drug Day on Thursday 10 July, which was prepared by the Life Makers Organization in cooperation with many other national organizations.     

The slogan of the UNODC anti-drugs campaign is “Do drugs control your life? Your life. Your community. No place for drugs.” The slogan will be used during three years and the campaign will focus on different aspects of drug control: drug abuse in 2007, drug cultivation and production in 2008, and illicit drug trafficking in 2009.

Related Content

•  Drug use in East and South-East Asia a growing problem
•  Recap of Yemen's environmental issues in 2008
•  World Aids Day celebrations call for urgent steps to deal with disease
•  Screw Worm Fly: new threat to livestock in Yemen
•  Yemen: Gateway for early humans in their journey out of Africa
•  Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise
•  Another three-toed dinosaur walked in Arhab
•  World Toilet Day
•  Fighting AIDS and misinformation remains an international concern
•  Poverty and water discussed in recent analysis