The Relations and Communication Unit of the Follow-up Department at the University of Basrah organized a scientific symposium on the dimensions and treatment of the drug phenomenon and its impact on the individual and society, in cooperation with the Basra Health Department and the Community Police.
The symposium aimed to show the extent of the spread of drug abuse among the community and to immunize university students against this dangerous scourge.
The symposium, in which the doctor specializing in psychiatric diseases and addiction treatment at the Addiction Treatment Center at Al-Fayha General Hospital, Dr. Abbas Juma Hamdan, and the Director of the Community Police Department, Brigadier General Tawfiq Hanoun Jassim lectured, included a discussion of the effects of addiction, how to get rid of it, legal texts and criminal motives that criminalize drug trafficking and promotion, and social motives of most drug users.
The specialist doctor, Dr. Abbas Juma Hamdan, said, "Patients are received in our center, which opened in 2019 with a capacity of 44 beds, through outpatient or consulting clinics, or treatment wards, or by sending them to us by the competent courts, or by patients visiting us voluntarily and willingly”, then the patient is protected from legal accountability, then we conduct the necessary examinations for them and evaluate their health condition by a specialized committee consisting of three specialized doctors who prepare a medical and psychological treatment program for each patient that includes treatment of the withdrawal effects of the narcotic substance in the blood and rehabilitation of his behavior which may require several months, if not years, after his recovery from addiction, to ensure that he does not return to it. From a medical point of view, we believe that drug addicts are victims of society. By studying the cases that reach us daily, we notice the diversity of the addict's motives between his desire to try everything new out of curiosity and exploration, following the rule of everything that is forbidden is desirable, or to regain identity after going through a failed life experience or because of the free time resulting from unemployment and lack of job opportunities”.
Hamdan added - “efforts must be combined to eliminate the spread of this phenomenon in society, which begins with the family, which must educate its children, as well as spreading awareness in schools, institutes and universities, encouraging and supporting small projects and voluntary social activities to eliminate leisure time”.
