The sharp drop in the average age of habitual drug users makes it essential to raise awareness of this issue and find a way to combat drug use, especially among adolescents. As The National reported yesterday, patients as young as 12 are being treated for drug abuse at the National Rehabilitation Centre.
Dr Ahmed Yousef, the centre’s psychiatry section manager, told the paper that Emiratis are trying out new drugs and encountering them at a younger age than previously. For example, he said new types of “uppers, downers, all-rounders” are being used – often simultaneously – by teenagers experimenting with drugs.
The cases at the National Rehabilitation Centre provide a startling window onto a reality that we need to face in a region where the average age at which some people start to consume drugs has decreased to 14 from 20, according to studies by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime. We need to accept that the war on drugs cannot be won in the conventional sense. Part of the solution lies in the provision of more facilities like the National Rehabilitation Centre, the only one of its kind in the Emirates, but more has to be done to combat the increasing incidence of drug use.
It is important to look at the root causes of the problem. The country needs a prevention strategy that focuses on awareness and on mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and psychotic disorders that often lead to the consumption of drugs.
There is a role for schools to do more to monitor their pupils’ mental health so that risk factors are detected early and support provided before the student falls victim to the temptations of drug abuse. Parents should also be targeted in awareness campaigns so they recognise the physical and behavioural changes that could indicate that their children are using drugs. Parents would also need advice on how they ought to proceed when drug use is suspected.
