There are 140,000 drug users in the Kingdom, with approximately 37,000 individuals arrested each year for drug abuse. About 700,000 Captogen pills are used every day in the Kingdom. Drug users also reportedly spend SR9 million on drugs in the Kingdom per year. The figures were revealed by Saeed Al-Suraihi, head of the Study and Research Administration at the Anti-Narcotics National Committee, while speaking at a meeting on Monday to discuss the national strategy to combat drugs. Drug dealing, Al-Suraihi noted, has largely increased over the last seven years. Al-Suraihi said some government bodies had provided the committee with insufficient information on their efforts to combat drugs, which affected a study on drugs conducted four months ago. Fayez Al-Shihri, the committee's assistant secretary general, criticized certain strategies, saying that some campaigns seeking to educate people on the dangers of drug abuse did more harm than good, leading to some individuals to try drugs of which they were previously ignorant. Al-Suraihi said the new Council of Ministers regulation demanded coordination with the committee on any drugs awareness campaigns to “avoid getting into a media circus”. The committee plans to launch an excellence award in the field of combating drugs and a research chair at Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University.
