Pubdate: Sat, 27 May 2006
Source: Arab News (Saudi Arabia)
Copyright: Arab News 2006
Contact:  http://www.arabnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3617

EXAMS DRAW SPEED DEALERS TO STUDENTS

JEDDAH, 27 May 2006 -- Drug dealers are targeting high  school,
college and university students using new and  ingenious methods.

According to a report in Al-Watan, students under the  pressure of
exams are being offered drugs by dealers  who say the pills would help
keep them awake and  enhance brainpower to study and read textbooks.
The  most common of these pills is Captagon, the commercial  name for
the drug fenetylline, a stimulant used to curb  attention deficit
problems in mentally disabled  patients.

Captagon is illegal in Saudi Arabia, though physicians  under certain
circumstances may administer it under  controlled doses.

Former drug addict Yousuf Al-Saleh was one such student  who initially
experimented with fenetylline while  studying for exams. He said the
dealers of this drug  generally target students at exam times when the
urge  to stay awake ostensibly to study is strong.

"Speed pills are quite popular and the problem isn't  just among male
students, there are female students who  are also getting hooked. Drug
abuse is dangerously  widespread," said the former speed addict.

With little access to gyms and no high school physical  education
programs, young women wanting to lose weight  can be attracted to
Captagon and similar drugs -- such  as ephedrine or even cocaine --
for their  appetite-suppressing properties.

Studies have shown that taking stimulants like  fenetylline or
ephedrine make people more alert but not  more attentive to preparing
for examinations. In fact,  speed pills can adversely affect test
results by  exhausting students and affecting their ability to
maintain attention. Taking speed pills to lose weight  has also shown
to exacerbate eating disorders that can  adversely affect health.

Speed pills can cause adverse psychological behavior,  such as short
tempers that easily lead to violence,  especially among men. If taken
over a long period of  time, speed pills can do damage to central
nervous  systems, even causing heavy users to have visible  twitches.

Speed also stresses the heart and in some cases,  especially when
mixed with other drugs or taken by  people who have heart conditions
they may not be aware  of, can be fatal.

Al-Jazirah newspaper recently reported the miserable  story of a
student who had grown addicted to drugs.  Former high school student
Ahmed K. says it was his  final year at high school and coming from a
middle-income family he was hoping to achieve good  marks to gain
admission into university.

Ahmed said that during exams he was struggling to  revise and so rang
a friend for help who asked him to  visit him the following day.

Ahmed said that his friend gave him some pills saying  they would help
him concentrate. "The pills helped my  concentration and I was awake
all day," he said. "The  next day my friend asked me about the pills
and I told  him that they were brilliant and thanked him. He told  me
that he could supply me with some more if I needed  any."

Ahmed said that he gained some brilliant results in the  exams but
slowly grew addicted to the drugs which his  friend would supply free
of charge. "One day I called  him to ask for more and he asked me for
SR500 which I  gave to him, I never thought that these pills would
destroy my life. After a while I even began stealing  from my parents
to feed my addiction. When I ran out of  money, he told me he would
continue supplying me as  long as I distributed drugs for him. I
wasn't bothered  about how many people I forced to get addicted, I
just  wanted pills for my own use," he said. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake