Saudi treatment for substance abuse: Men are better off than women

It should come to no surprise that in Saudi Arabia, a nation where women are sub-citizens, inequality of the sexes extends all the way to treatment for drug addiction.

From the Arab News:

“Saudi society is incapable of accepting women as drug addicts; therefore, it is better to treat them as psychiatric patients and not drug addicts,” said Dr. Muhammad Shaweesh of Jeddah’s Al-Amal Hospital.

The hospital has women drug addicts seeking treatment, but with no facilities to handle them, the women are transferred to psychiatric hospitals. Al-Amal Hospital administrators are seeking a building to house a facility. For now it remains a problem.

What the article doesn't mention? Because women are treated so poorly in the Saudi kingdom, circumstances probably create more female addicts there than male.

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