Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi Judicial Department will build specialised centres to handle narcotic cases from next year, a senior official at the Public Prosecution of Abu Dhabi said yesterday.
Speaking to Gulf News, Counsellor Mohammad Rashid Al Dhanhani, First Chief Prosecutor at Baniyas Prosecution of Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, said: “Hopefully the new centres will come up by next year. These will be set up within the premises of the existing Judicial Department of Abu Dhabi.”
This special centres will look into all kinds of drug cases, including trafficking, promoting, trading and selling to youngsters. He said drug addiction among youngsters in schools is a major concern where they buy it from their classmates. “We need to have specialised units in the CID to uncover and nab drug peddlers who promote and sell drugs to students.”
He admitted that the number of drug cases have slightly gone up and we have to work efficiently to bring them down.
“We want to further reduce the drug abuse cases and spread more awareness among the community. The specialised drug centres will help prosecutors, judges and other officials to implement the laws more efficiently,” he said. He said drug traffickers use new ways to smuggle drugs into the country and make it available to youngsters.
He said 148 drugs cases were referred to the Federal Narcotics Prosecution, which involved 150kg of hashish and more than 10 million Captagon capsules.
Al Dhanhani stressed introducing new legislation to amend the anti-narcotics laws to protect the youth. Under Article 44, Dh50,000 fine is imposed for drugs peddling, buying selling and promoting.
According to statistics, the first instance courts gave jail terms in 55.16 per cent of drug cases in 2015-2016, which dropped to 47.76 per cent cases in 2016-2017, while fines were imposed in 41.52 per cent drug cases in 2015-2016 and 46.41 per cent in 2016-2017.
He said there is a need to spread awareness in the society about the dangers of drug abuse through different media channels and social media platforms and lectures.
Rehabilitation
As per the drug addicts rehabilitation rules there is no difference for treating Emiratis and expatriates.
“Anybody who turns up for the treatment we don’t differentiate. Both citizens and foreigners are treated equally,” Al Dhanhani said.
“Our focus is to lower the number of drug abuse cases and rehabilitate the addicts. We want to provide them another chance to start their lives in the society.”
He said drug treatment expenses at the rehab centres are too high and all are borne by the centres.
