JIDDA, Saudi Arabia — The sword falls swiftly on a drug dealer's neck in the kingdom of the Saudis.
There is nothing secret or ambiguous about the policy. Even before visitors land on Saudi soil, entry forms state in red letters in English and Arabic that trafficking in drugs is punished by death. Beheadings are routinely conducted in public squares, the details chronicled in the media.
Thirty-five convicted traffickers were executed in 2000, in most cases after swift, secret trials without lawyers or juries.
The government says the harsh punishment and the kingdom's relative isolation from sources make drug addiction less severe than in countries like Iran or Pakistan, where heroin moves with refugees and merchants across long, porous borders with Afghanistan.
But it is a serious enough problem that the rulers have begun to deal with it in a very un-Saudi way: openly. And while the government considers drug trafficking a criminal activity, it has begun to regard drug, alcohol and nicotine dependence as treatable illnesses.
One reason is that although an estimated 65 percent of Saudi Arabia's population is under the age of 25, this is a place that bans movie theaters, concert halls, discotheques and dating. Sports activities, particularly for women, are limited. Without a choice of healthy diversions for young people, drugs have increasingly become a source of entertainment and escape.
"We don't think that the drug problem in our country can be described as a phenomenon," said Dr. Suhail al-Banna, director of Al Amal Hospital in Jidda. "But whatever you call it, we are very concerned about it and are dealing with it."
The government provides no statistics on drug consumption, interdiction and trafficking, but, according to the U.S. State Department's annual global drug report, anecdotal evidence "suggests that Saudi Arabia's relatively affluent population, large numbers of unemployed youth and the high profit margins on narcotics smuggled to Saudi Arabia make the country an attractive target for drug traffickers and dealers."
Al Amal, whose name means hope, is one of four drug treatment centers in a country of 21 million people, about 15 million of them Saudis.
In terms of treatment, the hospital confronts the problem head-on.
The hospital serves more than 200 male Saudi patients. Expatriates are jailed and then deported. There is no drug facility for women.
Drugs are smuggled into the country either by air or sea by pilgrims going to Mecca, or by other travelers who sometimes use children as carriers. Alcohol is banned, but available, and most prescription drugs, including sleeping pills, amphetamines and anti-depressants, can be bought over the counter without prescriptions.