Bringing together more than 480 experts from 26 countries, the conference is the first of its kind for Saudi Arabia and will focus on combating drug abuse through joint security training, prevention programs and information sharing.

Saudi officials say the drug trade is often linked with security problems and the government has become increasingly focused in its fight against drug trafficking, culminating in one of the Kingdom's largest ever drug busts announced by the Interior Ministry last week. Ministry spokesman Mansour Al-Turki said it was likely there was a link between the drug smugglers and Al-Qaeda, as the international terror organization uses drug trafficking to finance its operations.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Saudi Arabia led the charts in seizures of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) in the years 1998-2007, accounting for 27 percent of all seizures.

"There is an increased realization both at the governmental and social level that drugs are becoming a serious issue for Saudi Arabia," Gerd Nonneman, director of the Center for Gulf Studies and a professor of Middle East politics at Exeter University, told The Media Line. "It's one that needs to be dealt with from all angles: pre-emption and treatment as well as policing."

Nonneman said that Saudi Arabia's porous borders with both Yemen and the United Arab Emirates have allowed for growing levels of domestic drug abuse with regional and international ramifications.

A spokesman for the interior minister, Ahmad Al-Salem, said that the conference, sponsored by Second Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Prince Naif, shows the Kingdom is keen to tackle drug smuggling and eradicate drug use.

Annemarie Profanter, an Italian professor at the Free University of Bozen who has researched drug trafficking in the Gulf with a focus on Saudi Arabia, said drug use among Saudi youth is on the rise. "In my studies, I have shown that the Saudi youth makes increasing use of nontraditional, maladaptive tools for societal integration including misuse of mind or mood altering substance such as street drugs (cocaine, heroin, cannabis etc.), alcohol, and prescription drugs (ridlin, oxyconton, seconal, etc.), which are haram, or forbidden," she told The Media Line.

Drug trafficking is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia, regardless of the quantity being trafficked. The knock-on effect is that if drug traffickers take the risk of doing business in the Kingdom, to make it worthwhile they will usually traffic huge volumes of drugs with large profit margins.

Thomas Pietschmann, a research officer at the UNODC’s Research and Analysis section, said drug abuse is an emerging problem in Saudi Arabia and has become more severe over the last few years due to the Kingdom’s growth in oil wealth and the vast connections the country has developed with other countries through its extensive foreign work force.

Annemarie Profanter, an Italian professor at the Free University of Bozen who has researched drug trafficking in the Gulf with a focus on Saudi Arabia, said drug use among Saudi youth is on the rise. “In my studies, I have shown that the Saudi youth makes increasing use of nontraditional, maladaptive tools for societal integration including misuse of mind or mood altering substance such as street drugs (cocaine, heroin, cannabis etc.), alcohol, and prescription drugs (ridlin, oxyconton, seconal, etc.), which are haram, or forbidden,” she told The Media Line.

The countries participating in the Riyadh conference include Jordan, Bahrain, the UK, the US, Canada, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Romania, Belgium, Australia, France, Qatar, Oman, the UAE, Germany, Austria, Russia and Iran.