BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

THE Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) is eyeing to tap both radio and television to expose and increase the awareness of mothers on the prevalent drugs being abused and the health dangers these posed.

Osmawi Osman, assistant director of NCB’s Preventive Drug Education Division, yesterday said using TV and radio is just one of the strategies the bureau is looking at to upgrade the knowledge of mothers about various types of drugs.

The NCB is also considering exposing working husbands more about the presence of various drugs and relay the information to their wives.

Speaking to _The Brunei Times _during yesterday ‘s NCB exhibition at The Mall in Gadong, Osmawi said all the strategies they were considering would depend on the results of the latest surveys that would be conducted during the exhibition.

The three-day exhibition is the last for this year with an emphasis on raising the awareness of mothers on drugs.

Osmawi said, “It’s sad to see sometimes that some mothers are not aware at all to the various types of drugs, even the most common ones. So our exhibition focuses on exposing the public, specifically the mothers, to these drugs.”

“According to our previous surveys, we identified that there was limited knowledge of drugs among mothers. So our surveys this time focus on reaching out to these mothers more and finding out the best route of supplying constant information to them,” he said.

The assistant director added that their future plans would highly depend on the outcome of the survey, with for instance if most mothers were on social media, then they would centralise constant information regarding drugs through social media.

“Depending on their ages, some older mothers might not use social media or might not have access to it. Therefore we would find out what radio stations or TV channels they constantly listen to or watch, to (come up with) tailor-made programmes on those channels,” said Osmawi.

He also mentioned that their previous research showed that there were some stay-at-home mothers who only found out about drugs or other stories from their working husbands, therefore if that was the case then the assistant director suggested exposing the husbands more so that they would bring home the information.

“According to international surveys, mothers are the most influential person for a child, so we need to reach out to them so that they can warn their children from a very young age about the dangers of drugs. So we call out to the mothers to come and find us here and ask any questions you want regarding drugs in Brunei and we will do the best we can to answer them and make them more informed,” said the assistant director.

The three-day exhibition started yesterday on the 1st floor of The Mall, Gadong.

In a statement, the Preventive Drug Education Division advised parents to be aware of where the money they give to their children go to, especially with the release of the government bonuses.

The Brunei Times