Cairo, Giza account for 42% of calls to gov’t anti-addiction hotline: Minister

CAIRO – 8 September 2023: Cairo and Giza, Egypt’s most populous governorates, accounted for 42 percent of calls to the government’s anti-addiction hotline in the first eight months of 2023, said Minister of Social Solidarity Nevine El-Qabbaj on Thursday.

During this period, anti-addiction treatment services were provided to 116,066 people, most of which are from slummy areas that were renovated, the minister said as she presented the efforts of the Fund for Drug Control and Treatment of Addiction (FDCTA).

Females accounted for 4.2 percent of those who sought help via the hotline, El-Qabbaj said, affirming growing trust by women in the hotline which provides services in full confidentiality.

Most of those who contacted the hotline in the first eight months of this year started abusing drugs in an early age, said Amr Othman, the minister’s assistant and the director of the fund.

He noted that the age groups of 15-30 years old accounted for a total of 76 percent of the callers, while 13.3 percent of calls started abusing drugs while less than 15 years old.

Hashish came first on the list of drugs abused by the callers this year at 37.09 percent, while heroine came second at 35.8 percent.

Late last year, the FDCTA reported a drop by around 50 percent in drug abuse in Egypt from 2015 to 2020. In April, Othman said drug addiction in Egypt amounts to 2 percent.

Egypt has launched many anti-drug campaigns over the past years, including the well-known “You are Stronger than Drugs” campaign that featured football star Mohamed Salah to encourage individuals to seek addiction treatment.