Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH — Al-Amal Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in Jeddah receives an average of 13 drug addicts daily, according to the National Anti-Drugs Committee. The committee's consultant, Dr. Nazar Al-Saleh, said the committee's call center receives about 700 calls each day. “People seeking help may contact us by calling 1955. About 95 percent of the calls we receive are from girls who seek help to get their fathers treated for addiction. We need more room to admit the great number of cases we receive,” Al-Saleh told Makkah daily. He also said the committee's main focus is on raising awareness as drug addiction is a preventable scourge. “We held the first introductory forum for the national project for the prevention of drugs recently. The forum was sponsored by Jeddah Gov. Prince Mishal Bin Majed and it touched upon family values and raising awareness among children,” said Al-Saleh. He said children need to learn how to respect their parents. “We have a program called 'Basim and Basmah', which is a cartoon series for children. Each episode is of 30 minutes. There are other promotional programs displayed in shopping centers,” said Al-Saleh. He said campaign encourages parents and children to watch these clips together to open a discussion. “We have been working on the awareness campaign for six months. Our campaign also targets young adults so we have contracted production companies to generate YouTube content and run social media campaigns. We are working with a team of Saudi filmmakers who produced films for Hollywood and Saudi Aramco,” said Al-Saleh. He added the young adults campaign will contain 10-minute action short films to convey the message of the campaign. “We will shed light on the dangers of drug abuse and security precautions to combat drugs. We will also have 14 episodes of an open debate on TV regarding drugs and the issues drug addicts face,” said Al-Saleh.
