KUWAIT DRUG CRACKDOWN

Kuwait is conducting a major campaign against drug abuse.

Newspapers in the tiny, oil-rich Gulf state say it has more than 29,000 drug
addicts.

The number of reported deaths annually from overdoses has risen 10 times in
as many years.

Kuwait is awash with illegal narcotics. In the crowded cafes and shabby
streets of district of Khaitan, drug dealing is rife.

Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from Egypt and South Asia live here
in dormitory flats. Many are tempted to sell drugs smuggled in from Iran to
rich Kuwaitis.

I saw a Kuwaiti heroin addict brought to Police Drug Squad headquarters in
handcuffs. He cannot remember his name, and he can hardly stand up.

It was his father who called the police, after the man turned violent in his
own home.

Widespread Problem

In a nearby office sits the man in charge of catching Kuwait's drug dealers.
Brigadier Abdulhameed Al-Awadi describes the problem his team is facing.

"If we want to talk about the drugs in Kuwait, we have different types. We
have hashish, and we have marijuana, and heroin and 'afyoun' which they call
opium - this is a big problem."

The government is tackling the issue on several fronts. There's a
rehabilitation programme for addicts while a nationwide publicity campaign
uses famous personalities to warn of the perils of drugs.

But above all, there's the deterrent.

Heavy Sentences

Kuwait's Central Prison houses around 2,000 inmates. Nearly half of those
are drug offenders and most are dealers, pushers and smugglers from Iran and
Pakistan.

They are serving sentences from six years to life. For the big-time heroin
smugglers, there s the ultimate sanction - execution by hanging.

Convicts here seem to accept their punishment. But some, like Aly Abdullah,
a convicted heroin dealer, question the way the government is tackling drug
abuse.

"They need to look at it on humanitarian grounds. For example a teenager
who's smoking just one cigarette of hashish, he goes to prison for six
years, maybe it's a mistake.

"So the campaign should aim for him - Take him to classes, not to jail."

Boredom

Beyond the prison walls, peace and prosperity have long since replaced the
terror of the 1990 Iraqi invasion. Now there's a different problem: Boredom.

Young Kuwaitis follow western fashions and watch satellite television. But
in conservative Kuwait, there's little opportunity to live the Hollywood
lifestyle they aspire to.

Many teenagers are turning to drugs for recreation. Khalid Al-Ajeel is the
manager of a busy music shop.

"There's nothing for the Kuwaiti teenagers to do here. They're just driving
around, smoking cigarettes, cruising around.

"It's boring, it's very boring for the young teenager."

It says something for the Kuwaiti Government that it is prepared to admit to
having a drugs problem at all.

But while the police catch the dealers, and the doctors treat the addicts,
it seems no-one is paying enough attention to the root causes of the
problem.