CAIRO: As part of the campaign against substance abuse, the United Nations Information Center marked international anti-drug day with a conference at their Cairo office on Tuesday. Maher Nasser, manager of the United Nations Information Center, Mohammed Abd El Aziz, manager of the regional drug office and Dean Medhat Zaky, general manager of the public relations department at the Anti-drug Institute all attended the event. They spoke of a drug free world as a goal that can and will be achieved. They further stressed that the media plays a crucial role in its implementation. Speakers presented statistics on the changes in the drug user market, examining the situation in various countries. The production of opium, a drug that is mostly produced and distributed in Afghanistan, has decreased by 15 percent over the past 10 years. There has also been a six percent increase in the success rate of crackdowns on distributors, which meant that the drug is now used only by 0.4 percent of the world s population. Colombia is considered one of the largest countries in planting and distributing cocaine, the production of which has decreased by 29 percent between 2000 and 2006. In 2005, 40 countries were able to stop 34 percent of production and distribution cases of cocaine across the world. Yet still about 0.3 percent of the world's population aged between 15 and 64 uses cocaine. Asked about statistics pertaining to female drug abuse in the Arab world, Dean Medhat Zaky said, There are no and will never be any reports that can accurately identify women drug users in the Arab world because tradition, ethics, and of course religion, differ from other countries. It is at the end of the day shameful to them, he added. He explained that one of the most serious problems Egypt is facing is the fact that there are no restrictions on what is planted on large stretches of unclaimed land in Sinai. This is worsened by the fact that they can neither monitor nor control drug shipments coming in or going out of the country through the vast desert borders. Clamping down on drug operations needs time, money and manpower, which are not always available, Zaky said. However there have been many improvements in Egypt since 1929 when the first drug police squad was established in the country, with more successful raids taking place. Tracking systems of GPS and GIS are now used and all roads are monitored and controlled by electronic equipment like night vision goggles and electric fences as well as border patrols. Improvements have not only been in technology but also in police training. Fighting drugs is a race against death and time, it is a continuous war but it is up to us to shape a better future.
