Battling drugs cause for concern

KUWAIT CITY, Jan 11: Unsupervised video-games sessions might lead individuals into drug addiction, especially if such medium was dedicated to adult content and audiences, said Kuwaiti experts on Wednesday. Speaking to KUNA, the experts affirmed that with the development of video-gaming technologies in recent years, it was important to set certain standards to avoid leading individuals into drug use and addiction.

Children, youth and adults spend nowadays a tremendous amount of times playing video-games whether individually or online and this require some sort of supervision from others, said acting head of the psychological department at Kuwait University (KU) Dr. Huda Ja’afar. She indicated that spending much of our free-time playing videogames might coheres people’s minds and filling that gap with false ideals one of them being that drugs were okay to use as long as they were not strong narcotics. This case is very true when it came to children who, with the advance video-game graphics and virtual reality services, would not know the different between right and wrong without guidance.

Dr. Ja’afar affirmed that some would focus on imitating whatever the characters in video-games were doing whether it was some bombastic actions or taking drugs. Similarly, head of the cybercrime committee at the federation of electronic media Mohammad Al-Rashidi warned against online video-games, saying that they were a danger especially if children were involved. Organized crime syndicates had penetrated the gaming industry, developing games where racy and adult contents and children would not know what was better without the guidance of their guardians and parents, he affirmed. Videogames must be age appropriate and geared towards the development and entertainment of children and not into corrupting their souls and minds, he concluded.

Narcotics
KHARTOUM: Battling the spread of narcotics should not be a trivial matter, it should be an issue of public concern due to its severe effect on the fabric of society, said a top official at the Sudan national anti-drugs committee on Monday. Speaking to KUNA, chairman of the committee Dr. Daf’Allah Al-Jazuli revealed that the Sudanese national campaign against illicit drugs had utilized all available tools, including social media and regular broadcast systems, to spread awareness on the evils of drugs. The committee, established in the 1960s and reassembled in the 1990s, has a sole focus on preventing drugs from spreading and helping people beating their addiction to substances.

Boosting national consciousness on the issue is paramount, he stressed, noting that the current efforts by the committee was to establish an addiction treatment center for those eager to rid themselves from drugs. Al-Jazuli, who was Prime Minister during the transitional period in 1985, revealed that members of the committee were senior and influential figures that would be able to steer society away from drugs.

In regards to recent studies connected with drugs in Sudan, Al-Jazuli indicated that two research were conducted in 13 universities in Sudan. The first done about 11 years ago had revealed that drug abuse was at around two percent. The second study carried out five years ago showed that the number was one the decline. However, unofficial reports in Sudan revealed that the average of addiction cases rose over 15 percent in the last decade especially amongst the youth. Despite the alarming figure, Al-Jazuli stressed that the numbers were not reliable, but affirmed that there was a feeling of unrest in society concerning the issue of drugs. (KUNA)