After a controversial law, secret committees search for drug users in the administrative apparatus in Egypt

Cairo - Azzam entered the headquarters of the educational administration in Cairo, and proceeded with the usual daily work rituals, then asked permission to go out on an external mission, but the security prevented him by a decision from the administration, due to the presence of a medical committee from the Ministry of Health, which suddenly came to conduct a drug examination and identify employees abusers.

Recently, committees for detection and analysis of drug users among employees have been active in implementation of Law No. 73 of 2021, which stipulates the termination of the job of drug users, and this law began to be implemented in mid-December.

Azzam's surprise was not limited to preventing him from going out and forcing him to take an analysis, but rather he was surprised when a nurse entered the bathroom with him to make sure that he was not using a friend's urine. Because of embarrassment, some of them were forced to take diuretics.

After the task was completed, the employees lined up waiting to receive the personal identification cards, which they handed over to the committee to register their data before entering. They stood in anticipation, trying to cover him with tense laughs, mocking the embarrassing situation, as they knew that the employee who would be found to be using drugs would only receive his identity card. management to take the necessary action.

A similar scenario

The same scenario took place in the Water Company in Cairo, with a slight difference, which is finding a driver in the company, who was found to be abusing, and was punished with a deduction and a dismissal warning.

Ayman Abdo, an employee of the company, says that tension prevailed after this discovery, as the driver swore that he only takes medicines and painkillers on a regular basis to relieve bone and joint pain.

In his interview with Al-Jazeera Net, Ayman indicated that the matter worried his colleagues that the drugs would appear in the analysis, especially since narcotic drugs and strong analgesics could show them as abusers.

Fears and reassurances

Employees' fears emerged because of the new law, according to a doctor in one of the committees, who refused to reveal his name, confirming that the analysis of the questionable sample was carried out in laboratories affiliated with the Ministry, and not only in the workplace, to ensure that the sample She is a real drug user and is not affected by the medications she is taking.

The employee has the right to resort to the Forensic Medicine Authority to request the examination of the sample - the subject of the dispute - at his own expense, or he can request that a medical examination be signed on the same day on which the analysis took place.

The competent authorities or the Forensic Medicine Authority are obligated to notify the employer of the final result of the analysis, and if the sample is confirmed to be positive, the worker's service is terminated, and the executive regulations specify the rules and procedures necessary to implement this article, and the worker's rights during the suspension period, and after the termination of his service.

The examination committees are based in their work on the element of surprising employees in various government departments and companies, so the movement of the analysis committee is complete, whether for the ministry or any entity affiliated with it, as the members of the committee are notified on the same day of the move to the destination that should go to examine its employees.

The committee is composed of a representative of the Anti-Addiction Fund, a representative of the General Secretariat for Mental Health, a representative of the Forensic Medicine Department, and a representative of the agency where the analysis is conducted.

The committee preserves the privacy of the employee, while ensuring that the sample is attributed to him, and then conducts the initial analysis and inferential examination in front of the person himself through rapid examination strips within a quarter of an hour.

In the event that the result is proven positive, a record of proof of the case is issued, and the sample is taken to the hospital where the analysis team belongs, so that a confirmatory analysis takes between 3 to 7 days through specialized medical devices.

After certainty of the result, the Anti-Addiction Fund is informed of the result of the analysis, which in turn informs the affiliated authorities, to take the necessary action.

The law covers not only the employees of the state's administrative apparatus, but also private institutions of public interest, with intensifying campaigns to detect drug users in public transportation and among school bus drivers.

Promising data

The Cabinet's media center published a report on the state's efforts to combat addiction during the period from 2014 to 2021, in conjunction with the issuance of the law to dismiss the drug addict employee.

The report clarified the motives and harms of addiction, pointing to the launch of the "Your Decision" initiative aimed at educating workers in government institutions and departments about the harms of drugs, which included 500,000 employees since its launch until now.

The report confirmed a decrease in the rate of drug abuse to 5.9% in 2021 compared to 10.2% in 2014, and the addiction rate decreased to 2.4% in 2021 compared to 3.4% in 2014.

The report stated that the annual average number of addiction patients who received treatment reached 101,000 patients, with an increase in the number of treatment and rehabilitation centers for addiction patients by 133.3%, while the number of patients visiting treatment centers to seek treatment and follow-up through the treatment hotline reached Addiction, to 116,517 patients during the 10 months between 2020-2021.

The report monitored the highest governorates in terms of the number of callers to the anti-addiction hotline, namely Cairo with a rate of 33.68%, Giza with a rate of 12.33%, and Alexandria with a rate of 9.22%.

The report indicated that 45% of the cases began using at the age of (15-20) years, and 34% started at the age of (20-30) years, and 14% of the cases started when the age of its members was less than 15 years, while it indicated that 56 % of them do not work, and the remaining 44% work in the private and government sectors.

The report indicated that 448,000 workers were detected in the governorates, while the hotline received 9,329 phone calls from employees for treatment of addiction, coinciding with the issuance of the law for dismissal of drug addicts, pointing out that the rate of abuse among employees decreased to 1.7% in 2021. instead of 8% in 2014.

Controversy

The law has sparked controversy since the start of its discussion in 2019, and tweeters considered the law harsh against the families of employees who will be affected by stopping the source of livelihood for their drug addict, which could exacerbate the crisis and not solve it.

Observers linked these measures to previous official statements announcing the targeting of reducing the number of employees in Egypt to only two million, down from 7 million when President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi assumed power in 2014, in response to the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund, given that these measures are aimed at catching abused employees. To dismiss them, to achieve the plan to get rid of millions of employees.

Official statements deny this interpretation, as the Minister of Social Solidarity and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Addiction Fund, Nevin Al-Qabbaj, announced that the door is open to employees who use treatment, and then retain their positions, stressing that whoever applies for treatment voluntarily is considered a patient to be treated for free and in complete confidentiality.

The ministry announced the hotline for the Anti-Addiction Fund "16023", with the provision of treatment services through 28 free treatment centers, so that the employee is also entitled to apply for treatment even after the application of the law without any legal accountability, as long as he applied on his own for treatment, and without This will be dismissed if it is proven that he used drugs.