I could take opposition against heroin abuse because it represents a degradation of my particular society’s moral traditions, like ‘la mentalite de la societe tunisienne’ that SB feels is threatened by the increase in drug use. Or I could view it more as a practical problem of unemployment and poverty, poor education or lack of prospects for the young as it is in some parts of Britain.

SB it would be really interesting to know more about why you find the fact that girls are taking more drugs shocking. I think I would too and it’s an interesting fact about the report. I don’t know Tunisian society, and it would be interesting to find out more about the exact beliefs and observations that informed your response as a Tunisienne – I really liked your honest response about reading the report several times!

But I agree with CP’s point about the blanket term ‘drugs’. It’s probably very difficult to separate the moral from the practical judgement against heroin abuse. It’s one of the worst afflictions of some societies. Violence, crime, health- and life-destroying addiction have so many inter-weaving implications for an individual’s, a family’s, a society’s, a government’s moral and ethical judgements and practical way of life.

Because of this, I agree with CP that to equate this kind of drug with others such as cannabis (even though this isn’t without its ‘moral’ and ‘practical’ effects on society of course), doesn’t always require the same response, or perhaps the same level of black/white classification that SM implied – drugs are drugs, whatever the type.

I think this is also the same for smoking – it’s easy to mix up moral and practical issues – I don’t think young people smoking would concern me as much as young people having to miss school and work due to poverty. I can see the way the two problems might be linked and represent a loss of childhood and ‘innocence’, but I think it’s sometimes useful to take things out of a moral framework to put things into an alternative perspective.

Merci pour cet article informatif. La drogue, quelque soit son genre, reste de la drogue. Cela ne touche pas juste la jeunesse tunisienne mais la jeunesse un peu dans le monde entier! C’est triste. En Egypte, c’est un vrai problème aussi. Sauf que les enfants ou les jeunes qui n’ont pas les moyens sniffent ce qu’on appelle “el kolla” (la colle) qu’ils trouvent partout. Le tabac est un autre problème qui touche presque tout le monde. Mais tu sais c’est ce qui me gêne le plus, c’est de voir un enfant de 10 ou 11 ans fumant des cigarettes. Ou un enfant, qui, à cause de la pauvreté, est obligé de travailler et de laisser tomber son école c’est à dire son enfance. En France, le gouvernement vient d’interdire de fumer la shisha (le narguilé) dans un endroit clos. En Egypte, si on veut lancer un nouveau projet, on fait un café où il y a surtout de la shisha! La loi égyptienne n’interdit pas encore de fumer dans des endroits clos et n’interdit pas la shisha. Tout en sachant que fumer une shisha pour une heure est l’équivalent de 100 cigarettes, selon un reportage français sur TV5.

Bises,
S.