Hugs not Drugs!

By: Salma El Fouly, Graphic Designer

Edited by: Haya AlDabbagh, Rima Al-Eisa, Leena Khan, Nora Al-Saud

 

 

It specifies in the Royal Order No. 4/B/966 under the Narcotics Control law, the severest punishment, for those who are involved in smuggling narcotics and bringing narcotics in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is death. Yet you will find that dealers are drug trafficking in schools and outside of school to students, risking their lives.

 

Students are more likely to be dealing with drugs in school because according to back to school survey’s done by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse show that students are more likely to consume drugs on school grounds due to less risk of being caught than anywhere else. Students even confessed in the back to school survey that classmates leave half way through the school day to consume drugs in places near the school.

 

But being in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia we would think that it’s a much different scenario due to the value of religion here. Islam does not tolerate drugs, and harsh punishments are served if someone was found dealing with drugs, but no, students are found to be dealing with drugs in front of school grounds and risk being caught as warned by Ahmed Al-Matrafi, a student adviser.

 

The dealers usually take advantage of the end of the year examinations and try to assure students that the drug will help them stay awake and study longer for these exams, and due to the students being under pressure to get high grades they fall targets to these drug dealers, Dr. Mohammed Al-Zahrani, director of Al-Amal Mental Health Complex in Dammam explained. Studies done on these pills have shown to be high in substances that causes brain cells to destroy as shown by the research done by the Drug Enforcement (Preventive Affairs) in the Kingdom.

 

Overall statistics show that students are usually going to other students to get information about drugs.  But according to the survey’s conducted here at AIS-R, the students get most of their information about drugs from social media. I was interested to find out why students aren’t getting their information from adults and more reliable sources so I asked Faris Al-Qalem, a student with 2 older siblings, and he quoted, ‘Because maybe they think the friends know more about drugs from older siblings, and it’s more reliable information than just asking your parents and them saying it’s bad.’

 

When I asked a person from the other side of the argument, the middle school counselor, Mrs. Veronique Mathy said, ‘I think it is because it is still a bit taboo.  Kids might think that others will judge them or think they are into drugs if they ask questions about it.  Nowadays, you can find information on the internet almost about anything.’

 

Studies conducted by the Drug Abusive Organization in the U.S indicated that students are usually starting to experience drugs by 8th grade, when I asked a few 8th graders why they think 8th grade is the year where students start to experience new things, Ellie Kim, a South-Korean student answered saying, ‘It’s the grade you start to mature and want to experience new stuff to seem ‘cool’.’ When I asked Shaher Tabba, a Saudi student his response was kind of the same, ‘When you're younger you're more curious about things, that you have a lot of potential to try these stuff even if they’re bad for you.’

 

To take actions to prevent students from ever getting involved with drugs in AIS-R I asked Mrs. Veronique Mathy what actions is AIS-R taking to help educate students about drugs responded saying, ‘The middle school health curriculum covers drugs and alcohol.  It is also a bit of a sensitive subject because it is illegal in Saudi Arabia and not allowed in the Muslim religion.  I know that this will be another area of focus next year for the middle school as we are looking into additional ways to educate the middle school students.’

 

When I asked students what AIS-R should be doing, Ellie Kim answered, “Maybe they should educate us, like show the drug, talk about how bad they’re for you and what harm they can cause, maybe even have a class about it.” I also wanted to know what students had to say about the education they're getting from AIS-R about drugs, so I asked Joud AlDabbagh, a student graduating this year that has been at this school for 6 years, ‘I haven’t really been educated about drugs from AIS-R, they kind of take a side when it comes to drugs, I guess because of the country were in it’s a very sensitive topic.’

 

Even though the student handbook has information about drugs in AIS-R, students are claiming that they’re not being educated enough about drugs from the school. If the school are willing to give lessons about the danger of drugs, students will be more aware that drugs can jeopardize their future.

 

http://www.berkeleyvoice.net/guess-what-i-heard/consequences-for-selling-drugs-in-school