EXAMS DRAW SPEED DEALERS TO STUDENTS

JEDDAH, 27 May 2006 -- Drug dealers are targeting high school,
college and university students using new and ingenious methods.

According to a report in Al-Watan, students under the pressure of
exams are being offered drugs by dealers who say the pills would help
keep them awake and enhance brainpower to study and read textbooks.
The most common of these pills is Captagon, the commercial name for
the drug fenetylline, a stimulant used to curb attention deficit
problems in mentally disabled patients.

Captagon is illegal in Saudi Arabia, though physicians under certain
circumstances may administer it under controlled doses.

Former drug addict Yousuf Al-Saleh was one such student who initially
experimented with fenetylline while studying for exams. He said the
dealers of this drug generally target students at exam times when the
urge to stay awake ostensibly to study is strong.

"Speed pills are quite popular and the problem isn't just among male
students, there are female students who are also getting hooked. Drug
abuse is dangerously widespread," said the former speed addict.

With little access to gyms and no high school physical education
programs, young women wanting to lose weight can be attracted to
Captagon and similar drugs -- such as ephedrine or even cocaine --
for their appetite-suppressing properties.

Studies have shown that taking stimulants like fenetylline or
ephedrine make people more alert but not more attentive to preparing
for examinations. In fact, speed pills can adversely affect test
results by exhausting students and affecting their ability to
maintain attention. Taking speed pills to lose weight has also shown
to exacerbate eating disorders that can adversely affect health.

Speed pills can cause adverse psychological behavior, such as short
tempers that easily lead to violence, especially among men. If taken
over a long period of time, speed pills can do damage to central
nervous systems, even causing heavy users to have visible twitches.

Speed also stresses the heart and in some cases, especially when
mixed with other drugs or taken by people who have heart conditions
they may not be aware of, can be fatal.

Al-Jazirah newspaper recently reported the miserable story of a
student who had grown addicted to drugs. Former high school student
Ahmed K. says it was his final year at high school and coming from a
middle-income family he was hoping to achieve good marks to gain
admission into university.

Ahmed said that during exams he was struggling to revise and so rang
a friend for help who asked him to visit him the following day.

Ahmed said that his friend gave him some pills saying they would help
him concentrate. "The pills helped my concentration and I was awake
all day," he said. "The next day my friend asked me about the pills
and I told him that they were brilliant and thanked him. He told me
that he could supply me with some more if I needed any."

Ahmed said that he gained some brilliant results in the exams but
slowly grew addicted to the drugs which his friend would supply free
of charge. "One day I called him to ask for more and he asked me for
SR500 which I gave to him, I never thought that these pills would
destroy my life. After a while I even began stealing from my parents
to feed my addiction. When I ran out of money, he told me he would
continue supplying me as long as I distributed drugs for him. I
wasn't bothered about how many people I forced to get addicted, I
just wanted pills for my own use," he said.