The total number of drug addicts in Egypt is estimated at 9 percent of the total population, said Minister of Social Solidarity Gouda Abdel Khaleq. The figure was floated in the minister's speech to a forum titled "A Revolution against Drugs" organized by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS). The speech was delivered by Inas al-Gafarawy on behalf of the minister.
Gafarawy said that the 9 percent figure includes people who are dependent on drugs, have tried drugs or recovered from addiction. However, she said that the figure is not the result of documented studies, and that her ministry does not have information on all types of drug addiction.
Baheiddin Mortaga, head of the information technology department at CAPMAS, said in his own speech that Egypt has 10 million smokers, who account for 20 percent of the population above the age of 18. According to surveys, most of the smokers fall within the age category of 15 to 64, and a smoker's average monthly expenditure on cigarettes is LE110.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
