Dubai: Involved in a three-decade-long battle with heroin, a 50-year-old Gulf state citizen has recounted how gateway drugs interred him in the dark world of substance abuse — a downward spiral, at the rock bottom of which he found himself with a heroin-loaded syringe pricking his arm.
“I was a slave to drugs,” he said in an account released by Dubai Police on Saturday.
His statement was taken during his interview with Amal Abdul Rahman Al Fiqa’i, Head of the Social Networking Division of the Department for Combating Drugs at Dubai Police.
His story is one of many that the department has encountered. What makes his story special is that the man spent his entire youth as a heroin addict, the effects of which he still suffers.
Al Fiqa’i said she was surprised when the man entered his office as she though he was the parent of a drug user. “I was stunned when I found out he was, in fact, the addict,” she said.
According to the police report, the addict was referred to the department after he finished his prison sentence on drug charges. The division routinely checks on patients and subjects them to periodical drug tests. “His battle with drugs began when he was in the prime of his youth. Because of some bad decisions and company, he was introduced to drugs that would prove to be a gateway to heroin and its fatal dangers.
“He said the first thing he would think about before planning to travel was whether he could find heroin at his travel destination,” she said.
“His addiction made him aloof in society. He would not interact with anyone and would spend the bulk of his time alone, shooting up heroin. He put his family under economic and financial strain because of his addiction,” she said, adding that even though he tried to ensure no one would find out about his addiction, the police caught wind of it and arrested him.
The addict recounts how he was extremely careful not to share needles with anyone. “However, one day I found myself forced to share a needle with a group of users. I then found out that one of them was suffering from Aids. I began panicking and was terrified. I saw my life flashing before my eyes, memories of my youth in full detail. I told myself the disease came to me as a punishment for how I threw away my life.”
He spent sleepless nights agonising over the possibility of being contaminated with Aids. “I finally took the test and it came back negative. I felt a bit relieved but continued to take the test in fear that it would emerge.”
In the account released by the police, the addict goes on to say that he went to a number of countries in the region for rehabilitation. “But I soon find myself back to where I was. I’d start with opium and then use heroin again. I saw all my friends grow up to lead successful lives and have families while I lived in the cave of my addiction. I was fired from work and lost my taste for life.”
The anonymous addict is now under the wing of the Social Networking Division of the Department for Combating Drugs at Dubai Police where he is undergoing psychological therapy.
