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Photo by Reed Hutchinson UCLA
Photographic Services
Partners against substance abuse: Richard Isralowitz (left)
and Nasser Loza
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middle-eastern partners
Drug project crosses dangerous borders
BY AJAY SINGH
UCLA Today Staff
It all began with a 1996 telephone conversation between two academicians
who had never met. Richard Isralowitz, a professor of social work
at Israel’s Ben Gurion University, telephoned Richard Rawson,
associate director of the Integrated Substance Abuse Programs at
the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, in an effort to launch a project
involving Israeli and Palestinian drug addicts. The two immediately
hit it off after learning that they shared a passion — for
cows. Rawson grew up among bovines in Vermont, and Isralowitz, by
his own admission, is “the best cow-milker at Ben Gurion University.”
In 2001, they embarked on an unprecedented “people-to-people”
research initiative to monitor drug abuse in Israel and the Palestinian
Authority. Called the Middle East Regional Cooperative (MERC), the
project is funded by the U.S. State Department as part of a federal
plan to foster cultural understanding and cooperation in the Middle
East through scientific partnerships. About two years ago, an Egyptian
expert was added to the project team: Nasser Loza, a psychiatrist
at Cairo’s Behman Hospital, one of the oldest psychiatric
facilities in the Middle East.
This pioneering project has a two-fold mission: first, to develop
and implement systems for gathering data on drug abuse, and then
to use the data to create drug prevention strategies and combat
illicit drug use. And second, to look into drug-related health issues
among people in a “state of tension” or war in an effort
to reduce conflict among them and promote communication, cooperation
and coordination.
“It’s a very complicated process,” said Isralowitz,
who, along with his partners, recently spoke at UCLA about the many
obstacles to their work. One of the biggest is politics, which often
disrupts social networks crucial to the project’s success.
“It’s akin to how LAX loses its lighting when a crow
hits the power lines,” explained Isralowitz. “We in
the Middle East never know when a crow will throw the peace process
off line.”
In a region notorious for conflict, drugs have the perverse distinction
of transcending national, linguistic and social boundaries. “Our
people are very united when it comes to drugs,” said Loza,
tongue in cheek, adding: “Those who use drugs often also deal
in them.”
Egypt and Israel, which share an open border, are not far from
Afghanistan and the Central Asian republics through which heroin
is routed into Europe. As a result, part of the smuggled heroin
ends up in Israel and Egypt, burdening their public health, security
and criminal justice systems.
Doing research in this part of the world has its challenges, as
Rawson and Isralowitz discovered during their first field trip among
Palestinians. They were escorted by armed Palestinian guards who
rushed the duo across the tightly guarded Gaza Strip in a van with
sirens blaring. “Why don’t they put signs on us,”
quipped Isralowitz, “ ‘Here come the Israelis.’
”
At their destination, the two professors were met by their Palestinian
hosts, who pointed to a crowd of community leaders, health-care
workers and teachers. “This is your audience,” one of
the hosts said coolly. “You’ve got the next six hours.”
“I didn’t think I could give a six-hour talk,”
said Rawson. But he managed anyhow.
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