“The presidency approved a plan for the awareness programs by providing social service specialists, school advisers and teachers with vital information on the impact of narcotics on the social, health and economic sides of life,” said Amal Khashoggi, director of women affairs at the presidency.

Khashoggi revealed that a team of women conducted a number of studies and tailored awareness programs in Jazan, Hail, Madinah, Jubail, Tabouk and Qassim, where they presented specialized workshops and lectures in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, universities and philanthropic societies.

Awareness teams, added Khashoggi, focused on directing and building awareness of the most commonly used narcotics in the Kingdom, Captagon and hashish.

The campaigns also aim to put together programs to build awareness of the dangers of narcotics and their long-term impacts, as well as providing school counsels with needed skills and train them to identify students who could be addicts or living with drug abusers and provide them with tools to deal with such cases.

Advisers are also provided with the latest information, statistics and findings on narcotics and means of distribution.

The awareness teams direct advisers on how to identify certain patterns associated with drug abuse in students and to focus on advising them according to their ages.

At the same time, the campaign aims to inform students of the dangers of narcotics.

Hana’a Al-Freeh, director of the preventive unit in the women affairs department, indicated that a number of awareness programs were carried out in many institutions, such as universities, schools and prisons. “The awareness workshops in Jazan involved the participation of 60 women advisers, who learned skills and gained experience and were not only given information,” says Al-Freeh.

She added that advisers were introduced to various kinds of drugs, their categories and effects as well as the means to deal with various situations when drug use is involved.

The awareness programs were accompanied by an exhibition where samples of narcotics were exhibited with photos of addicts.