By Sulome Anderson
SIDON, Lebanon: Ahmad, a tall young man in a fur-lined jacket,
sits smoking a cigarette in his friend’s computer shop in Ain al-Hilweh camp.
His eyes are bloodshot, with dark circles underneath.
He smiles lazily as he talks.“The first time I tried hashish, I
was smoking a cigarette, and I saw my friend rolling a joint,” he says. “I
tried it. It was good.”
Ahmad, whose name has been changed to protect anonymity, says
that after he started smoking hash, he began taking prescription pills.
“There was a lot of hash here, but Fatah stopped the hash from
coming in, so people started going to the pharmacy to get drugs,” he says.
Ahmad says he started dealing so that he could have money to buy
drugs.
“I go to the dealer and get a large amount of drugs to sell,
because I need to get my own drugs,” he says. “Key persons in political parties
in the camp tried to solve the problem by arresting dealers, but the problem
wasn’t solved. Every day, you can find another dealer. The addicted people are
teaching the children, and when they grow up, they become addicted or dealers
themselves.”
Drug use in Palestinian refugee camps is on the rise, according
to NGOs and doctors who work there. There are 12 such camps in Lebanon, all of
which struggle with poor socioeconomic conditions as well as a lack of job
opportunities and education outside of United Nations Relief and Works Agency
schools.
The most commonly used drugs are prescription medications such
as Tramal, an opiate derivative. Heroin and cocaine are also used, although
less so because they are too expensive for most of the camp’s residents, according
to experts that work in this field.
Qassem al-Saad, director of Nabaa, a child rights NGO that works
with addicts in the Palestinian camps, says that drug use is partially due to
unemployment and partially because political parties within the camps use drugs
ranging from hash to heroin as a recruitment method.
“We think this phenomenon began to increase over the years due
to many factors,” says Saad. “First of all, the level of unemployment among the
Palestinians is over 56 percent here in Lebanon. Second, political parties are
using drugs as a tool to motivate youth to join them. This is one of the
problems we face here.”
The drug market in the camps is particularly complex because of
the different political parties vying with each other for dominance. According
to Saad, many of these parties support the drug trade while also giving lip
service to work done by organizations like Nabaa.
“Some of them are protecting the drugs dealers and at the same
time they want to support you,” says Saad. “You are walking on land mines in
this area, and because of that we keep the political parties and the Lebanese
government involved.”
Part of the problem is the easy availability of prescription
medications, says Saad. “Outside the camp you cannot obtain these things freely
without a prescription, but inside the camp you can.”
Dr. Charles Yaacoub, a psychiatrist at Bellevue Medical Center
who conducted a study in which he looked at drug use in the Palestinian camps,
says that the best way to control drug use in the camps is to crack down on
pharmacies selling prescription medications over the counter.
“It’s not just a Palestinian problem. It’s a Lebanese problem,”
says Yaacoub. He says the ready availability of drugs, particularly
pharmaceuticals, in the camps, means the drugs spread into the rest of the
country, as people travel to the camps to buy them. “We should regulate some of
the medication that is present and can be obtained over the counter. This is
the first step ... until now, we have had no green light from the government to
achieve this ... maybe because the cartels for those medications and drugs are
powerful.”
Yaacoub’s study focused on juvenile delinquency among the
Palestinian population, a problem that he found was fueled by drug abuse.
According to the psychiatrist, the lack of opportunities and
activities within the camps contributes to the overall problem of drug use.
“Lebanese people are bored,” he says. “We don’t have parks, we
don’t have regular activities, and this sense of emptiness pushes people to do
drugs. This is exacerbated in the Palestinian camps. They have nothing to do,
especially adolescents.”
However, Yaacoub also acknowledges the political motivations and
concedes that they have an impact on the rise in drug use.
“What we clearly know is that drugs are a way of recruitment,
and a way of keeping people in the group,” he says. “Drugs are a cheap way to
recruit people. Now it’s not always that political. It becomes a business, and
like all businesses, some of the people in charge have to be involved in some
way.”
Rwaida Ismail, a psychologist who works with Nabaa, says that
the reasons Palestinian youth turn to drugs differ, but they are all affected
by the poor socioeconomic conditions in the camps.
“Everyone has their own reasons depending on their problem,” she
says. “I treat three boys who had been addicted for various reasons. Their
economic conditions are very difficult too and these things preoccupy parents
from their children.”
Ismail says that drugs have a serious effect on the lives of
young people who become addicted. “Their social relations deteriorate and they
can’t work,” she says.
According to Ismail, the best way for parents to prevent their
children from taking drugs is to monitor their children’s comings and goings.
“Parents should monitor their kids, know who their friends are,”
she says. “They should monitor what time they leave, etc. Parents here don’t do
that very much.”
Ahmad puts out his cigarette, pointing to a pharmacy across the
street.
“That guy, he’s a dealer,” he says. “He sells drugs. See how
easy it is to get them?”
He says that the poor environment in the camp makes him want to
get high.
“There are no
jobs, and the current environment is very bad,” he adds. “The situation makes
people do drugs. We want to forget our problems. You forget everything when
you’re high. It makes your life better.”
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2011/Nov-22/154835-drug-use-rampant-in-lebanons-palestinian-refugee-camps.ashx#axzz1eXTUaUod
No comments:
Post a Comment