Drug Addiction in North Palestine

This research concerns the problem of drugs and drug addiction in northern Palestine. Although this problem has accrued in the last three decades and it currently represents a serious threat to our society, there are very few studies on the issue and programs related to drug awareness and rehabilitation are scant. This study aims at defining the drug problem in northern Palestine: types of drugs used and their availability, networks of distribution, definition of users and trends of addiction, it also examines the level of awareness of the dangers of drug use among Palestinians and their understanding of its socio-economic impacts on the one hand, and their attitudes towards addicts, on the other hand. Finally it aims to study and define risk factors and their possible effects. In Palestine, there are no centers for treatment of addiction or for development of research in the field of addiction; this study proposes a few answers or solutions on how to address the problem. There is discrepancy between our findings about the number of drug users (the percent the study found is more than 4%) and those officially declared (less than 0.5%). This makes it urgent to draw the attention of those who are directly and indirectly concerned with the issue among official bodies and the commuity and stress the need for a widespread awareness campaign particularly among the youth who are a most vulnerable target group. All Rights Reserved - Library of University of Jordan - Center of Thesis Deposit This research concerns the problem of drugs and drug addiction in northern Palestine. Although this problem has accrued in the last three decades and it currently represents a serious threat to our society, there are very few studies on the issue and programs related to drug awareness and rehabilitation are scant. This study aims at defining the drug problem in northern Palestine: types of drugs used and their availability, networks of distribution, definition of users and trends of addiction, it also examines the level of awareness of the dangers of drug use among Palestinians and their understanding of its socio-economic impacts on the one hand, and their attitudes towards addicts, on the other hand. Finally it aims to study and define risk factors and their possible effects. In Palestine, there are no centers for treatment of addiction or for development of research in the field of addiction; this study proposes a few answers or solutions on how to address the problem. There is discrepancy between our findings about the number of drug users (the percent the study found is more than 4%) and those officially declared (less than 0.5%). This makes it urgent to draw the attention of those who are directly and indirectly concerned with the issue among official bodies and the community and stress the need for a widespread awareness campaign particularly among the youth who are a most vulnerable target group.