Egypt fights a losing battle against drugs

GIZA: Egypt is facing an escalating drug crisis with 10 percent of the population addicted and increasing numbers of women and children affected.

Government figures have shown a sharp increase in the last 10 years that put Egypt’s addiction rate at double the global average.

Officials have drafted in prominent figures such as footballer Mohammed Salah to spearhead campaigns against narcotics, but face an uphill task.

With Egypt’s huge population of young people, and studies saying 8 percent of high school students are using drugs, officials and public health experts fear they are sitting on an addiction time bomb.

“This is why the country should have serious programs and plans to fight this threat,” Amr Othman, head of the Egyptian Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Addiction, told Arab News.

Of particular concern for the authorities is the increased use of Tramadol — available as a strong pain killer on prescription but widely sold as a cheap alternative to heroin.

A study last year by Egypt’s Fund for Drug Control and Treatment showed more than half of addicts in Egypt were taking Tramadol. About a quarter were using heroin and 23 percent cannabis.

The highest concentration of drug users are in Cairo and Giza, home to some of the biggest slums in the world, said Egypt’s Ministry of Social Solidarity.

But the drug use epidemic transcends Egypt’s social classes.

Sherif, a 20-year-old university student, from an upscale neighborhood in Giza said he and his friends regularly “do cocaine or MDMA (a psychoactive drug) on the weekends and continue our lives as normal during the week”.

“Everyone does it.”