A new anti-drug campaign spearheaded by superstar preacher Amr Khaled has raised questions over why addiction is mushrooming. Gihan Shahine delves into the lives of addicts and interviews the man at the helm of the campaign Thirty-three-year-old Karim -- not his real name -- cannot even remember why he slipped into addiction. He was only eight when he started smoking in third primary school. "My father and eldest brother used to smoke and that made me curios to try cigarettes," he told the Weekly. "And, yes, I did it," he laughed, dubbing himself "the miraculous child". Two years later, Karim started his long journey with drugs. "My big brother was on hasheesh and I used to accompany him on all his outings," Karim went on. Karim's brother was only in first secondary school at the time, but was an occasional user. He quit drugs once he entered university. For Karim, however, drugs were "a pleasure I did not want to abandon". "I knew drugs were dangerous, but I took the matter lightly. For me it was fun and I thought I could quit anytime. I didn't know it would ruin my entire life." Karim did not want to put the blame on peer pressure or family problems. "It was my character. I was naughty and deviant by nature. I liked to do whatever was wrong." That said, Karim would immediately concede that his father was "very harsh and absent most of the time. "My father would go on many trips outside Egypt so we were usually separated. There were many long periods when my mother would live with my brother and I would move in with my sister. We just did not have a stable, warm family life. My only role model in life was my big brother who was on drugs." Karim thought drugs would fill the vacuum. "It made me feel high," he said. Soon Karim was trapped in an endless quest for a better high. "I used to try everything -- hasheesh, alcohol and sedatives until I ended up on heroin when I was 21." Money was no problem for Karim; it was readily available. At a later stage, however, he would steal things from home to sell for more and more money. "When you're on drugs, your feelings die, you don't see anything except one target: to get money to get your intake. Our hearts were dead. My friend and I saw two of my friends die of an overdose. We left one [friend] in his car and one in front of his apartment block and simply left. We just had no control over our minds or feelings." Karim spent nine years in the Faculty of Hotels and Tourism. "I tried to work after graduation, but I would get fired once my boss discovered I was on drugs. My life was totally ruined and I started feeling lost. I felt so exhausted and frustrated that I had no control over my life. I was totally enslaved by a giant craving. I wanted to break free but didn't know what to do. I was too depressed and I didn't know where to go." Karim's family started to notice he was on drugs when he was in third secondary, but did not know what to do either. "They would rebuke me, and punish me by locking me in the home. I would decrease the dose for a while so that they would think I quit drugs, knowing that my father would leave soon and that I would return to normal. Later, they tried to admit me into hospitals, but I always suffered relapses once I was out." It was only five years ago that Karim finally found the right place for treatment. "A relative told us about a hospital where, for the first time in my life, I found people who really cared about me as a human being. An addict is usually a social outcast. He needs someone to deal with him as a patient, not a deviant person who deserves punishment. He needs care and love to become integrated into society again. That's exactly what I found in this hospital. "I have since quit drugs and I've been clean for five years now." Karim was literally reborn. "I feel so happy that I'm in command, that I'm free. No one can really understand what it means to have control over oneself except those who were addicts. It feels so good being a normal person again, that I can do something in life. I feel so happy when I go to sleep at night without having to worry about where to get money for my intake." Karim is now employed and "self-disciplined. I started praying and fasting, but that's not the end of the story. I try to discipline myself everyday and watch my behaviour with others. I follow up with a psychiatrist who helps me do that." Karim is saddened that more and more youngsters are on drugs. "At my time, I was a rare case. Today, more kids are becoming addicted and they start with heroin. It's sad. I really think that campaigns like that of Amr Khaled are very important. Addicts need someone who will listen, to help and care for. They need to know that life without drugs is so sweet."
