Egypt developing unified strategy for Arab countries to combat drug abuse

CAIRO - 14 February 2020: The Fund for Combating and Treating Addiction and drug Abuse headed by Minister of Social Solidarity and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Fund, Nevin Kabbaj, is developing a unified strategic plan for Arab countries to combat drug abuse in cooperation with the Arab League.

This came after the Council of the Arab Ministers of Social Affairs agreed to appoint the Ministry of Social Solidarity with the task of setting a plan to prevent and reduce drug risks in the Arab society.

This comes in light of the success of the ministry’s Addiction Treatment and Control Fund, as many countries took that experience as an example to treat patients of drug abuse, in accordance with international standards and awareness programs about drug harms.

The ministry will prepare the strategy and present it at the upcoming meeting of the Executive Office of the Council of the Arab Ministers of Social Affairs in preparation for circulating it to the member states.

Kabbaj pointed out that the availability of data on the drug use issue and the development of scientifically evidence-based policies remain essential elements in understanding the problem at the national and regional levels, as the importance of data collection is reflected at the international level.

The development program, dubbed "The Arab Observatory", will include statistics in the field of drug abuse, as it includes all the information needed to prevent and treat drug use disorders as well as to monitor risk factors for infectious diseases and threatening behaviors among youth.

Kabbaj added that the observatory also acts as a mechanism for monitoring drug prevalence rates among the most vulnerable groups, and that it collects information on all aspects of the drug situation through conducting investigations. It may include estimates of deaths attributed to drug use.

For his part, Assistant Minister of Social Solidarity and Director of the Addiction Treatment and Control Fund Amr Othman said an Arab strategic direction would formulate to direct all preventive and effective therapeutic interventions, rehabilitation, and community integration as per international standards.

Othman referred to developing and adopting a unified Arab strategy to confront the drug problem and coordinating cooperation between Arab countries to develop unified Arab databases and control mechanisms to rationalize ways to confront the drug problem.