Volunteers at the corniche during the campaign of distribution of the awareness brochures on drugs and damage.

Amal Hospital in Jeddah launched a two-day drug awareness program on Sunday to coincide with the International Drugs Day observed globally.

The program was held with the aim to help parents keep their children safe from the harmful effects of drugs and their treatment.

The event was attended by a number of volunteers, residents and visitors. More than 13,000 awareness brochures and informational material was distributed along side the drugs abuse awareness lectures delivered by experts in the field.

Dr. Osama bin Ahmed Al-Ibrahim, supervisor of the program, said the awareness program was targeted to reach the largest segment of the community toward the seriousness of drug abuse and to draw their attention to the far reaching effects of taking drugs and the harm they do worldwide.

He informed that according to reports by the global program to combat drugs supervised by the United Nations, there are almost 230 million drug users in the world.

In the Kingdom, Amal Hospital with a 200-bed capacity has taken the initiative to combat drug abuse and has become a pioneer in the treatment of drug addicts.

Sulaiman Zaidi, a psychologist and director of community service at the hospital said that they had prepared this program in order to interact with the community by distributing awareness leaflets and putting up an exhibition with the participation of a number of volunteers and employees at the hospital.
“More than 13,000 drug awareness brochures were distributed around Jeddah including three locations at the Corniche’ and at the hospital to make people aware of the different kinds of drug abuse, their harmful effects and treatment programs,” he said.

Drug abuse is generally on the rise in the Kingdom and particularly peaks during exam time when students resort to sleep-depriving pills to keep awake during the nights to study for longer hours. However, most of these prescription pills are harmful if taken over an extended period of time leading to addiction and other harms.

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