Drug Rehab Solutions for Egypt

Because Egypt sits at a significant crossroads, the country is subjected to the trafficking of drugs from every direction. It controls the Suez Canal, the vital connection between the Mediterranean Sea and Europe, the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. This shipping channel is critically important to international commerce and this fact is not missed by those with illicit substances to move.

• From Morocco, cannabis products—particularly hashish—travel to the Middle East. Morocco is by far the largest producer of hashish in the world.
• Amphetamines produced in Eastern Europe move through Egypt on their way to Southern Asia. Amphetamine is often pressed into tablets and sold as Captagon.
• Opiates and cannabis are both produced in the fertile fields of the Nile Valley as well as on the Sinai Peninsula, providing plenty of supplies for local residents.
• Illicitly-manufactured tramadol is produced in China and India and sold on the streets of Cairo. Unlike the tramadol sold in other countries, these pills also contain amphetamines. The pills sell for as little as 29 cents each. They offer a solution for those people strained by poor economic conditions. In Egypt, only cannabis is abused more than tramadol.

Recent political changes in Egypt seem to have opened up the drug market in urban areas. Drug prices dropped and supplies are more adulterated, reducing the potency. A 2010 report estimated the value of the drug market at $3.9 billion. It’s expected that this number has increased since then.

In Cairo, the rate of drug use is 40% higher than the world average. Abuse is greatest in areas of poverty within the city.

Egypt’s Porous Borders

Egypt has a similar problem to that of the United States. Despite a hefty border fence between Israel and Egypt, drug smugglers work out ways to move drugs across the frontier and into Egypt’s cities. In a recent case, fifteen smugglers used ladders to get near the top of the border fence and threw 100 kilograms of hashish over the top. The two smugglers on the Egyptian side were arrested.

It’s not uncommon for these smugglers to be armed and to engage in firefights with soldiers on either side. Smugglers, as they try to move their products across the border, have even been known to shoot anti-tank missiles at the military.

Addiction Treatment is Scarce

An Egyptian trying to find help for addiction may have a hard task ahead of him. There is still a very high stigma attached to drug use or addiction in the country. Most treatment is done in psychiatric hospitals. Some private unlicensed centers have sprung up recently, preying on those who fear the public scandal of admitting themselves to a licensed psychiatric facility. But there have been reports that these unlicensed and unscrupulous centers lock their clients away, beat them or even electroshock them before letting them return home while making sure they get full payment for this torture.

In dramatic contrast, the Narconon center in Egypt uses healthy methods to enable each person to recover a productive, enjoyable life.

Recovery at Narconon Egypt

At this resort location in Ismailia, each person is supported through their withdrawal with generous nutritional supplementation that helps calm sickness and muscle pain. One-on-one work with the staff—around the clock if it’s needed—helps keep each client focused on recovery and the future instead of the trauma and agony of the past.

When each person is fully sober, is sleeping well and eating normally, they can then begin the process of getting their lives back. They will each experience the deep detoxification of the New Life Detoxification step—a sauna-based detox that reaches deep into the tissue to extract old, stored drug residues. As long as these residues are lodged in the body, they can affect one’s thinking and mood. As these toxins are washed away, it is very common for a Narconon client to talk about how much more energy they have and how their cravings are now manageable. Some people even say their physical cravings are gone. With cravings gone or under control, life after rehab does not have to be a minute-by-minute struggle to stay sober.

Alleviating Suffering

One thing an addicted person knows about all too well is suffering. He (or she) suffers guilt for all the harm he has done to himself, his family and his community. He has usually lost everything of value by the time he gets to rehab, including his home, career, and self-respect. He has probably been ill or injured and may have been at death’s door due to one or more overdoses. The next step in the Narconon program helps bring a person out of the pain and trauma of the past and back to the present. This step is called objectives.

This is where a person gradually recovers his perception of the real world, which he can do with gentle guidance, now that he is in a safe place. Day by day, the present becomes more positive and fresh. His perceptions, once muddy and dim, brighten. He regains control of his actions and even his thoughts. Once again, he is in charge of his life, not his addiction.

Restoring Life Skills

Each person’s final phase of recovery includes three courses of study and application to restore the essential life skills needed for sobriety. These three steps involve the following skills:

• Knowing how to choose associates who will support one’s sobriety
• Gaining the skill of successfully handling those who would undermine one’s positive new lifestyle
• Understanding how one’s personal integrity is lost and how one can recover it
• Having specific and effective tools for rebuilding relationships and resolving problems

As these tools are learned, they are also put to use to help each person begin creating a new, sober future. Guided by Narconon staff, each person plans his re-entry to his normal life, using everything he has learned. When the student has shown that he knows how to use his new life skills, he is a graduate.

The Fifty—Year History of Narconon

For more than 50 years, the Narconon program has offered a fresh, new hope to tens of thousands of people. Without the use of substitute drugs (other than those in a required medical detox prior to starting the Narconon program), using nutritional supplements, detoxification, and life skills training, these graduates have gained an understanding of managing a sober life—skills they may never have had—even before they began using drugs.

In Egypt or anywhere in the world, contact Narconon International for more information on Narconon Egypt. We are looking forward to helping you or a loved one discover a bright new world without drugs.