By Mohamed Khairat, Editor-in-Chief, EgyptianStreets.com One evening between classes, nearly nine years ago, Karim Roshdy stumbled upon a group of his schoolmates huddled on the outskirts of their private school in Cairo. It was that evening that the 16-year-old school boy had his first puff of hash. “It was reinvigorating, exciting, and new,” he says. But merely five minutes later, a security guard interrupted their cloud of smoke with a torrent of shouts, threatening to report the seven teenagers to the school’s principal. “I just froze and was on the verge of breaking down in panic,” says Karim. “Surprisingly, my friend calmly got out a 50 pound note [about $7] and gave it to the man who just smiled and walked away.” Today, as a 25-year-old university graduate, he has a completely different perspective on the use of hashish. “It is poisoning our youth,” explains Karim, who stopped smoking weed at the age of 21. “Not only is it a waste of money but it also impacts your relationships…you end up mixing your lies with the truth.” According to recent reports released by Egypt’s National Council for Battling Addiction (NCBA),…
