Princess Noura Bint Ahmad Bin Abdul Aziz, Chairperson of the Committee for the Care of Female Inmates and their Families, on Thursday revealed a plan to rehabilitate drug-addicted women inmates. The London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat quoted her as saying the committee has designed a program for rehabilitating female drug addicts socially and mentally, so as to protect them from being exploited by drug traffickers and peddlers after they are released. Colonel Saud Al-Essemi, Director of Awareness and Preventive Guidance at the Anti-Narcotic Administration, said the latest statistics released by the administration showed the rate of female drug addicts in the Kingdom to be three percent of the total number of addicts in the country. He said field studies conducted by the concerned authorities showed that a good percentage of women who sought treatment from their addictions had developed the habit from their addicted husbands. Awatif Al-Derabbi, a social researcher at the administration, has called upon families to be careful in selecting and approving the future husbands for their daughters. She said the studies she conducted on some addicted inmates proved that their husbands had dragged them along with them into the abyss of drug addiction. One of the subjects of the study, identified only as Umm Muhammad, finally recovered from her addiction. She said she had been using drugs for ten years because of her addicted husband. “Being a drug addict, he turned my life into hell,” she said. “In fact, I was tempted to try drugs out of curiosity to experience the mood and feelings he develops after using drugs, which turn him to a monster. Eventually, I became an addict myself.” She said she tried her best to kick the habit, but it was in vain. “With time, the rift between me and my husband grew wider. Just imagine the fate of children living in such an environment. Thus it was not a surprise that all of them became delinquents.” Another woman, whose name was not revealed by Al-Hayat, was quoted as saying she had been a drug addict for 15 years. Just like Umm Muhammad, she blamed her husband for her trauma. She said she started out experimenting with hashish and eventually turned to heroin. Worse yet, she ended up becoming an alcoholic, saying she tried all kinds of wines. She said she was socially stigmatized. Her family abandoned her, leaving her with no choice but to wander aimlessly on the streets, becoming pickpocket in order to buy drugs. “At last I decided to seek closure for this gloomy chapter in my life on my own,” she said. “I sought treatment at Al-Amal (Hope) Hospital in Dammam, where they treated me of my drug addiction. I have completely changed my life and joined a society caring for addicts.” __
