119,000 persons nabbed for drug-related crimes in Saudi in last three years

Some 119,000 people have been arrested in Saudi Arabia in the last three years for drug-related crimes, with 60 percent of the cases involving drug use.   Citing a report from the Arabic daily Al-Madinah, the news site Arab News said on Tuesday that “about 400 security officers had died fighting traffickers” and the accumulated substances amounts to more than SR18 billion (US$4.8 billion).   The report also disclosed that within that three-year period, the Department of Combating Drugs seized:

• 181 million Captagon pills, a popular drug among students that led many to juvenile homes for drug abuse;
• 61 tons of hashish, an intoxicating substance collected from the flower of female cannabis plants;
• 222 kilograms of heroin; and
• 2,206 tons of qat.

  The statistics has urged the department and the Health Ministry’s regional center for monitoring narcotics to raise awareness about “the dangers of drugs,” with a team of 242 experts and researchers meeting with young people across 220 districts.   Filipinos involved   In 2010, at least 11 Filipinos were among more than 200 people arrested in Saudi Arabia for drug-related offenses within three months.    In April last year, an overseas Filipino worker (OFW), who was convicted for bringing in drugs there, was granted pardon and freed nearly two years after he was earlier sentenced to death by beheading.    The OFW, whose name was withheld by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), was arrested by Saudi law enforcement agents in 2008 after he received a postal package with methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) inside. Major problem   Reports said drug abuse is a major problem in the oil-rich kingdom, which “led the charts in the seizure of amphetamine-type stimulants” from 1998 to 2007 with 27 percent. Smuggling and selling illegal drugs there is a crime punishable by death.   A study done by Annemarie Profanter, an Italian professor at the Free University of Bozen, found that drug use among Saudi youth is on the rise.   “In my studies, I have shown that the Saudi youth makes increasing use of nontraditional, maladaptive tools for societal integration including misuse of mind or mood altering substance such as street drugs (cocaine, heroin, cannabis, etc.), alcohol, and prescription drugs (ridlin, oxyconton, seconal, etc.), which are haram [forbidden],” she said. - VVP, GMA News