Nearly 7.7 percent of the high school students in Egypt abuse drugs whereas 8.3% drink alcohol, Egypt's Ministry of Social Solidarity said on Monday.

In a conference to inaugurate a counter-addiction and addiction treatment fund, assistant to the Minister of Social Solidarity Amr Osman said that the results came from a national survey of high school students in Egypt, which covered smoking, narcotics and alcohol use.

Port Said, followed by Assuit were the governorates with the highest rates of drug abuse, according to the survey findings.

Minister's assistant Amr Osman also said at the conference that hashish was the most common drug abused by students, accounting for 58.9 percent of illicit drug use, followed by marijuana, or as it is known in Egypt "Bango" at 28.5 percent and Tramadol at 22.8 percent.

Regarding cigarettes, Osman said that 73 percent of the students who smoke buy their cigarettes by themselves in direct violation of the law.

The smoking age in Egypt is 18 years old.

The survey showed that 28.5 percent of tobacco useres smoked cigarettes only, while 21.3 percent smoked water pipes or shisha only and 50.03 percent smoked both.

The survey showed that 53 percent of the students see a connection between alcoholic drinks and happy occasions whereas 33 percent of them felt that alcoholic drinks are connected to meetings with friends.

Of those who used alcohol, Red Sea governorate recorded the highest percentage of students drinking, followed by Cairo governorate.

8.2 percent of male students, compared to 2 of female students in high school drink alcohol according to the survey.

According to the survey, 53.5 percent of the students who drink said that they drank on special occasions only whereas only 12.6 percent said that they drunk to forget their problems.

Egypt is Muslim majority country and Islam prohibits drinking alcohol.

The legal drinking age in Egypt is 18 years old for beer and 21 years old for wine and spirits.

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