Dubai: Passengers who fail to present prescriptions for certain listed medications will not be detained at Dubai International Airport, Dubai Police said.
Dubai Police Deputy Chief Major General Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina said: "There are no detention cells for passengers carrying listed medications by the Health Ministry without prescriptions.
"We keep the medications with us until the person presents a prescription from the doctor who prescribed it." Gulf News earlier reported the changes to these regulations which had been made this year.
Major General Abdul Jaleel Mahdi, Director of the General Department of Combating Narcotics at Dubai Police, said the increase in reports about passengers carrying medicines without prescriptions prompted them to change the regulation.
Regulation
"I agree the previous regulation was somehow strict whereby passengers were extensively interrogated and in extremely few cases detained till the substance was examined," said Lieutenant Colonel Khalid Saleh Al Kawari, Deputy Director of the General Department of Combating Narcotics at Dubai Police.
"People tend to argue that people having or possessing marijuana should not be criminalised but addiction starts step by step and we ensure curbing every possible way to smuggle or use drugs," Al Kawari said.
Dubai Police have proposed a plan to the Community Development Authority to start a drug rehabilitation centre.
This would be for first-time addicts, Al Mazeina said.
"Treating first-time drug addicts is much more efficient if it isn't conducted in prisons as they will be mingling with other addicts," he said.
Do you use alternative medicines? Have you found them to be more effective than traditional medicines? Do you research on the medicines before purchasing them? Or do you trust your doctor?
