A “historic” drop in the rate of employee abuse in Egypt..1%
The Fund for Combating and Treating Addiction and Abuse in Egypt announced that the rate of drug use among workers in the state’s administrative apparatus has decreased to an unprecedented number in the history of Egypt, which is 1%.
Dr. Amr Othman, Director of the Addiction and Substance Abuse Control and Treatment Fund, says, “This figure shows the size of the effort that has been implemented in recent years, and the plan that Egypt is working on to completely eliminate addiction, whether by raising awareness and providing treatment in great secrecy, or through a law the chapter".
Othman continued, in his interview with Sky News Arabia: "We had a plan to reduce this giant percentage among employees, which was achieved last year by reaching 1.7 percent, and it decreased more this year, and we hope to achieve more progress in the coming periods."
During the last three months, Egypt implemented the law of dismissal of an employee who abuses drugs, after leaving a period of about 6 months for employees to voluntarily apply for treatment in complete secrecy and without any prejudice to their job, so that about 10 thousand employees applied to receive treatment service.
The law, which was implemented in mid-December, provides for the sudden dismissal of the employee if it is proven that he has used drugs through an analysis conducted by the competent authorities, for a period of more than 3 months, in addition to stopping the payment of half of the employee’s wages throughout the suspension period.
Article 6 of Egyptian law punishes any official who intentionally allows someone who has been proven to have used narcotic substances to occupy a position in the state’s administrative apparatus, with imprisonment and a fine of no less than 100,000 pounds and not more than 200,000 pounds.
The Director of the Fund for Combating and Treating Addiction and Abuse confirmed: "We have recently inspected nearly half a million employees, and the focus has been on the vital facilities of the state that serve the largest number of citizens."
Regarding the grace period that was left for employees to apply for treatment, Othman pointed out that “thousands of employees voluntarily applied for treatment during that period. They were dealt with safely, and they received a treatment and rehabilitation program in order to be able to cross the addiction crisis in the best way.”
Concerning the number of employees who were dismissed after their drug use was stable, the Assistant Minister of Social Solidarity noted in his interview with Sky News Arabia that “these numbers cannot be clarified at the present time, because in the beginning an inductive analysis is done and then confirmatory analyzes before the implementation of the decision, and we are now in Waiting for the confirmatory analysis.
According to the latest statistics published in Egypt on addiction rates in different governorates, Cairo governorate topped the list, followed by Giza governorate and then Alexandria governorate.
The Fund for Combating and Treating Addiction and Substance Abuse has established a hotline to receive calls from those wishing for treatment, in an effort to curb this negative phenomenon that Egypt is trying to eradicate by all means.
In his interview with "Sky News Arabia", the Director of the Fund for Combating and Treating Addiction and Abuse believes that the hotline is of great importance, noting that in 2021, nearly 144,000 addiction patients were offered treatment through it, all treatment services were provided to them through 28 centers spread in 17 Governorate.
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