The representative of the supreme religious authority, Sheikh Abdul-Mahdi al-Karbalai, warned against the phenomenon of drug proliferation in society.
Al-Karbalai said in the Friday’s sermon held at the holy shrine of Imam Hussein "pbuh" on July 5, 2019, that "What’s of concern is the growing and spread of this phenomenon quickly among the young generation," noting that "This segment is one of the social segments, which was emphasized on its importance in previous sermons, as it is the segment that expected to build a promising future for the country due to its effectiveness, therefore, the spread of such phenomenon, will lead to the depletion of these intellectual, mental, psychological, physical and health energies that the society expects."
"Drugs are being promoted lately through malicious, deceptive and attractive ways among young men and women to trap them in dealing with such substances," he added, pointing out that "One of those means is by convince the youths to use drugs as a treatment against psychological stress, medical disorder or any other problem faced by those youths."
He added that "There is no means to defend the minds of young generation against this phenomenon," calling at the same time for related authorities to raise awareness and to create swift and successful solutions in order to prevent it from growing any further such as the implementation of firm laws and legislations instead of the current ones that don’t affect the powerful, well-connected individuals that dealing with drugs, according to officials."
"It is crucial to fill the spare time of young people through developmental programs in order to put their massive energies in a good use," he stressed, adding that "The current psychological stress faced by the youth due to unemployment or social problems, will drive them more and more toward harmful substances as a getaway from their reality."
The representative of the supreme religious authority renewed his calls for providing job opportunities for the youths by revitalizing private businesses, industrial, agricultural sectors, and youth centers, as these fields didn’t get much attention so far," calling also on families, schools, and media outlets to take their part in the fight against this dangerous phenomenon."
"Islam has set ground rules and systems for all the problems and challenges of life, and delivered the right treatment for every single one of them, as well as developed societies did for such problems, whether they were in the family, school or university and so on," pointing out that "Family and school give the best of their abilities to build the youth academically, while didn’t give the same amount of efforts to instill ethics, principles and high values into their minds and hearts."
Al-Karbalai concluded with shedding the light on the seriousness of another phenomenon, which is the spread of some immoral centers, especially in the capital Baghdad, as they camouflage their corruption with socially-accepted names such as entertainment, health, or self-improvement centers, while they aim to corrupt the society from within, which means that the state authorities should pay these centers more attention and put them under strict surveillance, for the threat they could bring to the society.
