IRAQ: Juvenile drug abuse on the rise

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

BAGHDAD, 20 Jan 2005 (IRIN) - Sitting on a corner in one of the poorest districts of Baghdad, 12-year-old Hassuny Iman takes a deep breath from a plastic bag containing shoe glue. Other children play around him but he seems oblivious to their presence.

Hassuny is just one of the hundreds of children who can be seen in the suburbs of Baghdad using drugs and being coaxed by pushers to push encourage other children to do the same.

"My brother came to me and told me to smell what was inside that bag. The results were really fantastic. I love it and cannot stop doing it anymore," Hassuny told IRIN. "Today I help to sell drugs in my area and for each day of work they give me drugs for me and my brother. Sometimes I wish I hadn't tried it but it's too late now," he said.

Children are being offered drugs by dealers, many of whom were released from Iraq's jails during the 2003 war. There are a variety of drugs being used around the country from the cheap types like shoe glue to expensive ones such as morphine, cocaine and crack, which are being sold at US $50 per gram.

But most of those getting hooked on drugs are choosing the cheaper ones, a child who sell drugs for pushers on the streets told IRIN. According to doctors, these are the most dangerous, as addiction is faster and often with worse consequences. Both children and adults are affected but children are the ones being pushed to sell the drugs on the streets since it guarantees more security for the traders. In return for their work, they receive the drugs free of charge.

Dr Abbas Dilemi of Sadr City hospital in Baghdad told IRIN that he had seen many cases of children poisoned by drugs in the past year. On treating the cases they usually find that most of the drugs being taken by children are very potent with intoxication levels as high as those for cocaine or crack.

"At the beginning I was really very surprised because in the six years that I'd been working here I had never seen cases of drug intoxication. Something is going wrong out there on the streets and the government should take care of this situation before it gets worse," Dilemi urged.

According to Dilemi, parents who normally bring their children to the hospital complain that they have lost their with overdoses often arising from the use of a cocktail of different
chemicals.

The Ministry of Health told IRIN that it was training a special group to look at this problem, which will include the provision of psychological assistance for the patient and families. Ministry officials also said that special centres for drug abuse cases existed all over the country but they didn't currently provide psychological assistance, which could make
patients' recuperation faster.

Under Saddam Hussein, overt drug abuse in Iraq appears to have been practically non-existent with the use or trafficking of drugs punishable by death.

But this changed after last year's war opened up the country's borders, making it easy for traffickers to smuggle in drugs and other illegal goods, Sabah Kadham, deputy minister of the interior, told IRIN.

Kadham said that, from February, an extensive system will be implemented at all borders in an attempt to stem the trafficking, but he also acknowledged that policing such an operation would be extremely difficult. "Unfortunately this situation is happening in our country but we will be very severe on this as security improves."

Salua Yehia, a psychologist at Al-Kind hospital in the capital, told IRIN that they have seen 42 cases of drug intoxication in very young children in the past four months. "Families are most affected by this situation as drug dependence is something new for them in this closed, traditional culture," she said. Most of the patients being seen come from the suburbs around Baghdad and from the poor Batawe'en and Alawi districts in particular.

Yehia added that a lack of social education about drugs was part of the problem. At the same time, after years of conflict in Iraq and ongoing violence in the country now, people were searching for a way to forget their problems and were beginning to turn to drugs as an answer. In particular, she said that for children it represented a new and seemingly exciting experience.

Families are becoming increasingly worried about the future of their children and have asked for an increase in anti-drugs information by the government but so far nothing has been put in place.

"My friend's son has become an addict and I don't want this in my family. God bless all the mothers who are going through this situation. The government should take an initiative on this issue urgently," Hiba Zubaidy, a mother of three in Alawi district, told IRIN.

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