DUBAI Peer pressure and stress are the leading causes of substance abuse among teens as young as 14, a top police official told XPRESS.
According to Major General Abdul Jaleel Mahdi Al Asmawi, Director of the Anti-Narcotics Department at Dubai Police, youngsters are using prescription medicines like painkillers to get a high as conventional drugs like heroin and hashish are not easily available.
“There is a drug problem in the country, but the issue is not focused on heroin and hashish, which are not easily accessible. The trend nowadays is the misuse of pharmaceutical drugs,” Al Asmawi said, adding that although pharmacies are being monitored, it is still easy to obtain mood-altering substances.
Awareness camp
Al Asmawi was speaking at the inauguration of Al Warqa Awareness Camp held on Sunday to create awareness about drug abuse in an entertaining and informative way. Jointly organised by Dubai Police and Civil Defence, the camp was attended by scores of children and featured a slew of fun-filled events. Trained police dogs sniffing out Tramadol pills from plastic jars was the highlight of the show.
Dubai Police statistics show there have been 916 drug-related cases in the city this year, an increase from last year’s 879.
The biggest drug busts took place in October and led to the seizure of 4.6 million Captagon pills, an amphetamine-type stimulant, worth Dh115 million. General Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina, Dubai Police Chief, said it was one of the biggest drug hauls in the world in 2013. About 830kg of illegal substances were confiscated in 2012. This year, over 3,500kg were seized.
