DUBAI: The 13th edition of Hemaya International Forum and Exhibition on Drug Issues has recently concluded with a list of recommendations highlighted by the need to call upon countries to increase penalties for drug smugglers and traffickers.
The event was put together by Dubai Police under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum and officially inaugurated Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, H.H. Sheikh Mansoor bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Participants agreed on the need to increase measures against convicts, including not allowing them to visit their families during religious and national events.
Attended by top law enforcement officials, the forum also recommended that necessary legislative measures be enacted to allocate proceeds from drug and money laundering offenses for the treatment and rehabilitation of addicts and link them to government jobs.
Other recommendations were:
• Invite authorities in the region to establish an Arab observatory tasked to study the indicators and trends of drug abuse and patterns of addiction and to benefit from the experience of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).
• Invite and learn from the European Union Commission, the National Program for Drug Prevention in Saudi Arabia (Nebras), the Kuwaiti Health Cities, the Combatting & Treating Addiction Foundation in Egypt, and Hemaya International Program in the UAE on ways to combat the menace.
• Another recommendation was to call on countries to adopt pieces of legislation facing the challenges of the growing phenomenon of drugs, and that the laws legislated by different countries be circulated through relevant international and regional institutions.
The recommendations included also inviting research institutions to take advantage of quantitative information research findings on social media and the internet to develop proactive prevention strategies to deal with trends and patterns of drug and psychotropic substance abuse.
