Dubai: Unsupervised teens and young adults who fall in with bad company are more susceptible to becoming victims of substance abuse, warned Dubai Police.
A marked absence in close family involvement can leave some people in a vaccum that is readily filled by often toxic alternatives such as illicit drugs and addiction that can be extremely damaging physically and emotionally as well difficult to reverse, police said.
The warning comes on the heels of two disturbing cases involving young women who were arrested after falling prey to the vices of substance abuse and addiction, they said.
Social studies expert Amal Abdul Rahman Al Fukai, director of the Social Communication Unit in the Anti-Narcotic Department in Dubai Police, said police arrested the young women after their lives spiralled downward due to addiction.
The first case involved an Arab student who, despite enduring her parents’ divorce, finished her high school with excellent grades and had a bright future ahead of her.
“She joined university but with not enough monitoring from parents, she socialised with bad friends and then became a drug addict,” Al Fukai said, adding that the girl reportedly befriended a male drug addict because of her bad female friends and started going out with him.
Exposure to the male’s drug-filled lifestyle and her compulsion to join in the illicit behaviour resulted in addiction, according to police reports.
“She start returning home late and her mother thought that she was with her friends, but she was on her way to drug addiction.”
Dubai Police were alerted about the male and he was arrested, as well as the girl who was with him when they were found consuming illegal painkillers, Al Fukai said.
“The girl’s mother was shocked when we informed her that her daughter arrested,” Al Fukai said.
A second case involved a 21-year-old Arab woman who also became entangled with the wrong crowd and was also arrested with a male friend who was reportedly supplying her with illegal painkillers.
“She was on her way to drug addiction and her family was also shocked when they learned that their daughter was taking drugs. There is a family absence which led to such results that can destroy the future of young people,” Al Fukai said.
Dubai Police provided support and counselling referrals to the families of the two women to help them overcome the addiction.
Al Fukai said that they continuously contact families of drug users and conduct visits to ensure that they do not return to drugs.
