Four million students in intermediate and secondary schools in addition to the universities and colleges began their final exams on Sunday amid strong warnings from the National Committee for Narcotics Control (NCNC) that the drug trafficking goes on spree during these days.
The committee said the drugs are being circulated on the social media tools under various misleading names including "Moroccan Blond" for the hashish, "spiritual drink" for the alcohol and "Abu Malaf" for narcotic pills.
Bandar Bin Abdullah Al-Rumaihi, spokesman of the committee, said traffickers are claiming that the narcotics will help students stay awake for long hours, focus on their studies, quickly memorize their subjects and improve their remembrance and ability to memorize their studies.
"On the contrary, these stuff lead to hallucinations, mental disturbances, addiction and death at the end of the day," he said.
The spokesman asked parents to watch out for the behavior of their sons and daughters during the examinations and if they will return home immediately from the schools or hang on with their evil friends.
He said improper behaviors were noticed among the students at the examination times in the past years including car joy rides, violence against the others, drug use and others.
"The circulation of the Captagon pills becomes very common among the students during the examination time under various names alleging that they will help the students concentrate on their studies and strengthen their memorization," he said.
Rumaihi said the effect of drugs on the minds of the students is worse by ten times than on the adults and said these pills may keep the students awake and alert for a limited period of time but will have adverse effects on them at a later stage.
"The narcotics, whether Captagon pills or hashish will exhaust the nervous system, cause harmful chemical changes in the mind and lead to psychological disturbances," he warned.
The Public Prosecution, on its part, strongly warned against propagating drugs on the social media and said this will be considered a media crime for which the propagator will be imprisoned for five years and fined SR3 million.
Meanwhile the Interior Ministry announced that as many as 1,461 drug trafficking suspects were apprehended during the past six months while the smuggling of half a million tons of hashish was foiled in 12 days.
The ministry said most of the drug addicts in the Kingdom are citizens who are under 20 years of age. It said as many as 11,039 smuggling suspects from 11 nationalities, including 589 Saudis, were nabbed last year.
SOURCE : SAUDIGAZETTE
