A leading UAE psychiatrist has said he would welcome a new drug classification system that warns people about the dangers of misuse of medicines in a better way.
AhmedYousif, head of treatment and rehabilitation at the National Rehabilitation Centre in Abu Dhabi, said alcohol abuse was most prevalent among the 28 patients at the centre.
He said there was also a problem with poly-substance abuse - the addiction to more than two drugs - and a system that educated people on the potential addictiveness of a drug would be a great help.
"I certainly would look at a reclassification of drugs in light of their dangers, addic tion potential and health issues as well as the stigma attached," said Yousif, a consultant psychiatrist and member of Britain's Royal College of Psychiatrists.
"It is not an easy thing to do. You need to be very careful when you look at drugs classification. You have to think of the culture of a country and do not want to cause more damage," he said.
Opened in May 2002, the National Rehabilitation Centre looks after 28 nationals at a time.
They undergo treatment for addiction to alcohol, heroin, cannabis and prescription drugs such as sedatives and sleeping pills.
The rehabilitation centre caters to 18 acute admission cases, who undergo a 90-day programme, and 10 residen tial patients where the centre acts as a half-way house.
In a campaign to be launched in April, the centre will blitz television and print media with educational inserts and issue flyers to highlight the dangers of various drugs.
In a recent report in British medical journal The Lancet, researchers discovered alcohol was one of the top five most misused substances followed by cannabis, LSD and ecstasy. Drug experts in Britain say the current classification system is misleading and not based on evidence.
"The point we are making is that all drugs are dangerous, even the ones that people know and use regularly, like alcohol," said Professor David Nutt, a psychopharmacologist at Bristol University who helped with the report.
By Adrian Murphy
© Emirates Today 2007
