Egypt’s Drug Problem Spirals Out of Control – 17 Oct 09

According to Egypt’s National Council for Fighting and Treating Addiction, six million people from Egypt’s population are addicted to narcotics. The United Nations says Egypt is a major transit point for trafficking between South East Asia and Europe, allowing the problem of drug abuse to spiral out of the government’s control. Last year, Egyptian police managed to arrest at least 50000 users and dealers and seize tones of hashish, but experts say that applying punitive measures will not solve the countrys drug problem alone. Al Jazeera’s Amr El-Khaky reports from Cairo.