It all starts with youth aged 15 and above falling in bad company. They have money and there is little control over them by their families, so they fall into this deadly trap and end up as an addict, said Dr Moza Al Malki. “In most cases, it’s a friend who is the culprit in initiating an innocent person into drug addiction.”
There are other youngsters who are just curious, who claim independence and want to show that they can take key decisions in life and lifestyle, and pick the dangerous habit, Al Malki, who has for long been counselling families on rehabilitating drug addicts, told this newspaper yesterday.
Some parents, according to her, go vacationing overseas during the long summer or winter breaks and they allow their children — sometimes as young as 15 or16 — to travel abroad separately with their friends. This makes these youngsters vulnerable to evil influences.
The problem is that youngsters have easy access to money with increasing wealth and salaries. “This makes them easy target of drug pushers,” insists Al Malki. Drug peddlers are always on the lookout for soft preys.
She hinted that in broken families, where bitterness breeds frustration among youngsters, there is little parental control over them, and they become easy victims.
Giving an example, the psychologist said: “In fact, I knew a student who began using drugs so he could study for longer hours. He was a brilliant student but tragically, after he took to drugs, ended up being an addict”.
According to Al Malki, many affected families approach her for counseling. To avoid social stigma, some families take the youngsters abroad for treatment and rehabilitation.
However, some families send youngsters to the Psychiatry Department at the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) for treatment, she added.
Al Malki was all praise for the Qatari government and said it has much tighter control over drug pushers and smugglers. She added that more efforts are needed to create awareness in the society and wage a war against the drug menace.
“Such campaigns should be held regularly and the talk about this social evil should not be treated as a taboo,” she suggested. The first step towards confronting a problem is to accept it, Al Malki hinted.
