Narcotics Department has begun addressing drug abuse in Jeddah's less well-off districts with a series of awareness campaigns involving conferences, lectures and information leaflets, as well as a female team to tackle drug use by young women. Department head Ahmad Al-Zahrani said that the moves have come in response to instructions from the Ministry of Interior to tackle an increase in the use of drugs in impoverished areas, and that the collaboration of local district administrators and societies has been sought to hold forums and reach as many residents as possible. “We are also working with the Ministry of Education to hold lectures in all of the city's districts, but particularly poor and typically unplanned residential areas, to increase awareness and prevent an increase in drug use by school pupils,” Al-Zahrani said. He said that a special female team at the Anti-Narcotics Department had been set up to work with the Girls' Education Department and other female education authorities and hold lectures on the dangers of drugs. “We are not focusing on one section of society at the expense of any other,” he said. “We arrange awareness programs targeting everyone without exception.” The start of the department's recent campaign coincided with the UN's World Anti-Drugs Day, which falls on June 26 each year. “Positive results can be seen from the campaigns, and they are expected to produce a fall in the use of drugs and in the presence of drugs in the city of Jeddah,” he said. Al-Zahrani added that although “no specific study exists”, the lack of precise statistics on drugs and drug use in Jeddah was still deemed “very low given the size of population and the demographic structure of the city”.
