Manama: Around one fifth of Kuwait’s high school students tried drugs, a study has indicated.

According to the survey of 11,380 public and private school students conducted by the Public Authority for Youth and Sport in Kuwait, 19.6 per cent said that they took drugs for pleasure or due to peer pressure.

The availability of the drugs and the relative ease to obtain them were cited among the factors that contributed to their usage, the students said, local Arabic daily Al Rai reported on Sunday.

More than 70 per cent of those who took drugs said that they were familiar with the awareness campaigns regularly launched to keep students and young people away from drugs.

“The major reason for starting to take drugs or stimulants or alcohol is their availability,” Faisal Al Jazzaf, the head of the Public Authority for Youth and Sport, said. “Then, there is a wish to forget personal problems, followed by seeking pleasure, the desire to draw the attention of other people and attempts to look fit or to lose weight or to build a muscular body. Curiosity and experiencing the feelings of those who use drugs are also important factors,” he said, quoted by the Kuwaiti daily.

The results of the survey showed that 98.4 per cent of the students were aware of the usage of drugs, mainly from television programmes and movies.

Knowledge about narcotics from fellow students was 10.6 per cent, followed by the internet with 7.5 per cent.

Most of those who took drugs started at the age of 15, the study said. Most students attend high schools until the age of 18.

Slightly more than half (54.6 per cent) took drugs or drank alcohol with friends.

Only 7,4 per cent admitted to taking drugs or drinking alcohol at home.

The study revealed that 22.6 per cent of the students wanted to distance themselves from the narcotics after consuming them.

According to Kuwaiti media, four drug suspects are arrested and three drug cases are filed in Kuwait daily on an average. At least one kilogram of hashish and 4,000 drug pills are recovered ever day, the media said, quoting a report highlighting the formidable challenges that the authorities are confronting in their fight against attempts to turn Kuwait into a transit station by major drug dealers in the region.