JEDDAH: With final exams approaching, education authorities in Jeddah are warning students against taking stimulants to help them stay alert during the tests.

“Artificial wakefulness created by pills such as Captagon during examinations will lead to unwelcome consequences,” Director of Guidance at the Education Department in Jeddah Salem Al-Towairqi said yesterday.

Captagon is the commercial name for the drug fenethylline, which was listed by the World Health Organization in 1986 as a psychotropic substance. The drug, which produces an amphetamine high, was once used to treat ADHD, but has now been banned in most countries.

“Although we haven’t so far caught any student in Jeddah schools in the act of consuming Captagon, we launched awareness campaigns during the school year with the aim to making students understand the harmful effects of the drugs and smoking, particularly during the exam seasons,” Al-Towairqi told Arab News.

The official added that the students of secondary schools have been the special focus of the awareness campaigns. As part of the campaign, doctors working in school medical units have made 40 lectures on the damaging effects of using stimulants.

Abdullah Sarouji, executive director of the Society to Combat Smoking and Drug Abuse, said its field studies affirmed that the drug pushers keep on trying to win more addicts by giving samples to students. Sarouji warned parents and teachers that if any student shows a tendency to smoke heavily during the examination season he might drift toward drug habits.

“As the examinations approach many students come under severe stress, particularly when families put pressure on them to score better grades. They may be tempted to take stimulants if they come under the influence of friends who are already in the habit of using drugs. There are awareness campaigns to counter such situations,” Abdul Ilah Al-Sharif, assistant director of preventive medicine at the Anti Narcotics Department, told Arab News. “Over the past two months we have conducted several forums and lectures on the issue in addition to distributing brochures and leaflets explaining the dangers of drugs abuse,” he said.

Al-Sharif said the campaigns tapped the potential of television programs in directly conveying the message to students and their families.

Dr. Abdul Aziz Abdullah, a specialist handling drug-abuse cases, said the harmful effects of Captagon include loss of orientation, auditory and visual hallucinations, dry mouth and loss of appetite, which may aggravate with continuous use leading to distracted attention, convulsions, premature senility and brain diseases.

There are 93 government departments and units to combat the drug menace in the Kingdom’s cities. These are in addition to units operating in airports and seaports.

The Interior Ministry announced last week that Saudi border guards have foiled efforts to smuggle 5.5 million Captagon tablets, as well as 3,002 kg of hashish and 19.5 kg of heroin into the Kingdom, so far this year.

Security forces arrested 81 Saudis and 75 foreign nationals in connection with the drug busts over the same period of time.