The Egyptian Cabinet on Jan. 30 approved amendments to an existing law imposing severe punishments for anyone caught peddling or using synthetic narcotics or importing substances for their manufacture. Egypt has for decades acknowledged the problem of drug addiction, but in recent months there has been a focus on locally manufactured cheap drugs, particularly the synthetic drugs called Strox and Voodoo, which have reportedly caused several deaths among young people.

Mohamed Abdel-Ghani, assistant professor of psychological health and addiction treatment at Zagazig University, said that the cabinet’s move comes at the right time. 

“In recent months, the use of synthetic drugs has become very popular because they are very hard for the police to detect, are very cheap and have a strong effect that gives users a completely different experience [than other drugs],” Abdel-Ghani told Al-Monitor. According to him, dealers are manufacturing the drugs at home, using imported herbs, cosmetics (such as beauty powders) and legal medications (such as atropine, ketamine and hyoscine). 

“The police began to face a big problem in taking action against the culprits because these drugs were not included on the list of illegal drugs,” Abdel-Ghani said. “So, most cases ended with the registering of these drugs at police stations as herbs or cosmetics [and the suspects' being released]. However, now, things are different after the new draft law.”