Sundhedsvæsenet og politiet i Yemen, der i forvejen lider økonomisk, bruger flere og flere ressourcer på at tage sig af den kriminalitet og de sociale og sundhedsmæssige konsekvenser af et stigende misbrug af narkotika og medicin i landet.
SANA’A, 30 June 2014 (IRIN): An influx of cheap counterfeit pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs, coupled with rising unemployment and an increasingly disillusioned society, is driving substance abuse in Yemen, according to civil society organizations, aid agencies, anti-drug campaigners and health and security officials, placing a growing strain on already stretched services.
“Drug abuse is a huge problem in Yemen and has become a bigger problem since 2011, especially synthetic drugs as they are more available and cheaper prices,” said Golala Ruhani, a development consultant who recently worked on community outreach projects on drugs in Yemen.
The rise in substance abuse is affecting the long-term health of drug users and is contributing to already low morale in a country where half of all young people are currently unemployed, according to the UN Development Programme.
It is also placing an additional strain on under-resourced police and healthcare departments where the problem has been particularly pronounced, such as in the southern port city of Aden and Taiz, an industrial hub in central Yemen, both part of established smuggling routes.
“It makes it even harder to do our job”
“It is a phenomenon, there is no denying it,” said medical doctor Rajeh al-Mulaiky, general manager at Taiz’s al-Thawra Hospital who has seen a rise in substance abuse in the city since the popular uprising in 2011 that eventually ousted long-time Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh. The problem is increasingly widespread, he said.
“It is well-known, the effects of drug use in general, but it’s not just a health problem, it’s a social problem,” he said. “The addicts affect their surroundings. Under the influence, addicts attack people, they steal. It is also causing us a lot of problems, especially at the [accident and emergency department].”
A doctor at the emergency department at al-Gamhouria Hospital in central Aden echoes al-Mulaiky’s account of the additional strain placed on the already hugely under-resourced healthcare system.
“Every night we have people coming in who have got into fights, who have overdosed, or who are trying to trick us into giving them pills,” the doctor says. “We already don’t have enough doctors or rooms so it makes it even harder to do our job.”
Abdulhakeem al-Ashwal, deputy head of security for Taiz, said substance abusers had been involved in rising numbers of violent incidents and petty crimes in the city, adding that they are often encouraged by their suppliers to sell drugs on to their friends, widening the network.
Al-Ashwal describes an incident in Taiz in February where a young man at a wedding had taken a strong sleeping pill – sold on the street as “Crocodile” – and tried to fire a rifle in the air but instead shot several other guests at the wedding. “It is horrible. This young man’s life is destroyed but also that of his family.”
Underlying causes
Læs hele artiklen på IRIN News.
