With Egypt’s economic and social problems not showing any signs of dwindling, most of Egyptian citizens have decided to switch to something else to take their minds off the down sliding economy by turning to drugs in an effort to ward off frustration.

According to report, these drugs are seen as a way out from the hopelessness that many people feel in Egypt today, they say it is to overcome the cruelty of life, daily hard work, thinking about food, children, paying our rent, and all of these responsibilities.

But unknown to them, rather than escape from these problems, they get into more problems by adding the smoking of “bango” a type of marijuana to their chain of problems.

Amr Othman, the director of the National Fund for Drug Control and Addiction Treatment, said that there had been a dramatic rise in drug use since the revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak two years ago.

Othman said that the political turmoil and security vacuum that followed the uprising has contributed to this rise, with the centre seeing around 40,000 patients in the last year, compared with a previous yearly average of 12-13,000.

Othman added that his organization was working with the Egyptian government to try to combat the problem and was distributing guides on addiction across schools in the country.

The drug addiction centre said that 30 per cent of drug addicts are addicted to the prescription painkiller Tramadol, which they say people can buy for as little as one or two Egyptian pounds a pill.