The UAE’s National Drug Enforcement Authority launched the National Campaign Against Drugs under the slogan ‘United Front to Eradicate the Scourge,’ kicking off a national drive calling on all society to stand as one against narcotics.
The launch was chaired by Sheikh Zayed bin Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan, Chairman of the National Drug Enforcement Authority, and coincided with the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
The campaign, organised in partnership with the UAE Government Media Office, brought together senior officials, security experts, medical specialists reflecting the Authority’s belief that the digital space is as critical a battleground as any in the fight against drugs.
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Speaking at the launch, Fahd Abdullah Haikal, Official Spokesman of the National Drug Enforcement Authority, said the campaign is rooted in the conviction that combating drugs is not solely a security responsibility, but a shared human and national one.
He cited alarming global figures by the United Nations data published in 2025 that more than 316 million people worldwide were trapped in addiction in 2023 representing six per cent of the world’s working-age population with the total number of drug users having surged by 28 per cent in just ten years.
“The real battle begins with building awareness, strengthening prevention, and turning every individual in society into a partner in protecting the nation and its children,” he said.
During the panel discussion Dr. Khalifa Al Suwaidi, CEO of the Hamdan Bin Rashid Foundation for Medical and Educational Sciences, recounted an interview he once conducted with a drug trafficker in an Arab country an encounter he described as one that required his team to go armed.
When asked where the primary market for his trade was, the trafficker’s answer was unequivocal “the Gulf region, because this region is successful in everything,” Dr. Al Suwaidi recalled the trafficker saying, “and it must be destroyed and no region can be destroyed except by targeting its youth.”
Dr. Al Suwaidi said the most effective weapon against drug trafficking is not enforcement alone but eliminating demand entirely. “The best way to destroy any trade is to ensure there is no demand for it,” he said, calling for a fundamental redefinition of the role of schools moving beyond academic achievement to embed life skills, self-confidence, and the ability to say no. “You will never find a person with genuine self-confidence who has fallen into the world of addiction,” he added.
Dr. Abdullah Al Khayyat, Consultant for Awareness and Prevention at the National Drug Enforcement Authority, stressed that the campaign marks the beginning of a broader institutional effort to unify all anti-narcotics strategies under one national framework.
“When we unify efforts, we build unified databases, we gain intelligence, and we become capable of proactively reading the methods of traffickers and criminal networks,” he said. “The dream is to bring every entity involved in enforcement, treatment, awareness, and prevention into one rank, in one place.”
On the treatment side, Dr. Mohammed Al Junaibi, Consultant Psychiatrist at the National Rehabilitation Centre in Abu Dhabi, highlighted the emotional and social barriers that prevent families from seeking help, noting that the journey to a rehabilitation centre is often harder than the treatment itself.
“The stigma, the shame, the guilt these are battles families fight before they ever walk through our doors,” he said. He also called for an expansion of treatment capacity, noting that existing centres are already operating beyond their limits.
Brigadier Dr. Abdulrahman Al Ma’amari, Director of the International Hemaya Centre at the General Administration for Drug Control, Dubai Police, divided society into three groups the recovered, the vulnerable, and the affected each requiring a distinct approach and message.
He called on influencers and media professionals present at the event to dedicate at least ten per cent of their content to anti-drug awareness. “You cannot believe in a message if you do not believe in its messenger,” he said.
The Authority also announced the launch of its official social media platforms as a direct channel of communication with the public. The national hotline 80044 operates around the clock, offering confidential reporting, counselling, and access to treatment and rehabilitation services.
Officials emphasised that UAE law stands on the side of those seeking help, guaranteeing absolute confidentiality, full privacy, and treatment to the highest medical standards. “We confirm to every family, every young man and woman, you are not alone,” Haikal said.
The National Drug Enforcement Authority was established in August 2025 as an independent federal body, tasked with setting and implementing national policies, legislation, and strategies on drug control, as well as tracking and intercepting trafficking networks in coordination with federal and local authorities.
Source: Khaleej Times