Kuwaiti MPs Call for Drug Testing in Schools in Crackdown on Lyrica
The Kuwaiti parliament’s educational affairs committee on Thursday unanimously approved a draft proposal to require secondary schools and universities to carry out drug testing for staff and students as part of a wider crackdown on the use of narcotics.
The draft adopted by the parliamentary committee called for those who test positive for drugs to be placed in a rehabilitation programme so they can be “reintegrated into society”.
“Youth are the leaders of the future and the beating heart of Kuwait and the state must invest in this future to protect it in schools and universities from the dangers of smoking, drug abuse and addiction,” Mohammed Al Mahan, the key sponsor of the proposed bill, told Al Qabas newspaper.
The move came hours after authorities under the Interior Ministry seized its largest-ever haul of illegal drugs that had been smuggled into the country.
Kuwait instituted a state ban on the non-prescribed use of Lyrica and Neurontin, the brand name of pain medication, in May 2021, as the abuse of the two drugs became more widespread in Kuwait and across the Arab world.
