Dubai: Drug addict's mother, maid help get her into police’s rehab centre

A woman addicted to drugs is now receiving the care she needs after her maid and mother sought the Dubai Police’s help in getting her into rehab.

According to the police, the young addict graduated from university with flying colours and got married at 20. She gave birth to a boy soon after.

However, she fell into bad company and her friends would advise her to get divorce every time she shared some personal problems with them. They convinced her to take drugs, which then led to her divorce.

“She moved out of her family home to live in a villa with her son and maid. Despite her family insisting that she move back in with them, she refused as she did not want them to discover her addition,” Colonel Abdullah Al Khayat, director of Hemaya International Centre at the Dubai Police, said.

The woman’s friends encouraged her to seek psychiatric help so she could have access to prescription drugs. As a result, she started suffering episodes of extreme anger, confusion and screaming. She even started breaking things.

“The maid then felt compelled to break her silence. She informed the woman’s mother about the changes she went through and her hallucinations,” said the officer

The mother knew about the UAE law that protects addicts from criminal proceedings if they surrender or if their family members refer them to the authorities for treatment. She immediately called the Hemaya centre and told the specialists there about her daughter’s addiction.

The daughter is now undergoing rehabilitation at the centre.

What the law says

Article 89 of the UAE law on combating narcotics and psychotropic substances:

No criminal proceedings shall be instituted against any abusers of narcotics or psychotropic substances who voluntarily present themselves or are presented by their spouses or relatives to the second degree to an addiction treatment unit, the Public Prosecution or the police, requesting treatment. The abusers shall remain in the unit until it takes the decision to release them.

Source: Dubai Police

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