The College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Sharjah held a PhD thesis from the Department of Sociology with a specializing in crime and criminal justice. The thesis topic was "The Motives for Drug Use in the UAE Society" submitted by Researcher Rashid bin Ahmed bin Ali Al-Shehhi, and under the supervision of Prof. Ahmed Falah Alomosh Professor of Criminology. The discussion was in the presence of the examination committee through the Microsoft Teams application and was composed of Prof. Khalil Abdullah Al-Madani, Moderator; Prof. Saeed Nassef, external examiner; and Prof. Ahmad Khettabi, Head of the Department of Sociology and internal examiner.

His Excellency Prof. Hamid M.K. Al Naimiy, Chancellor of the University, and Prof. Hussein Al-Othman, Dean of the College, and several faculty members and postgraduate students at the College were keen to attend the discussion using the online communication program.

In his speech after the session ended, the Chancellor of the University welcomed the members of the committee and the project supervisor and thanked them for their efforts in using modern technologies to ensure the continuation of the educational process, and he praised the importance of the subject of that study, especially in light of the current circumstances, which will be of great value for scientific research in the field of sociology in learning about drug effects on societies. He also congratulated the researcher and asked him to continue studying this issue in his future research.

For his part, Prof. Hussein Al-Othman congratulated the researcher, the supervisor and the examination committee and praised the quality of discussion, and the scientific activity in the Department of Sociology in general.

It is worth noting that this study was motivated by local and regional statistical indicators on the spread of the drug addiction phenomenon and returning to it, and the fact that addiction is a global phenomenon that affects most societies differing by size, types and spread. From this standpoint, and in the interest of the UAE to save its children from the scourge of drugs and return to it, there was a great interest in the treatment of this phenomenon. This is through the use of the rehabilitation centers for the substance abusers, increased supervision of it, and introducing them into rehabilitation and social programs that prevented them from returning to the drug. Statistics used were issued by the relevant authorities, including the National Rehabilitation Center in Abu Dhabi, so the researcher sought to verify the motives leading to returning to the drugs by examining theoretical studies.

The study reached several conclusions, the most important of which was that the motives for returning to the drug are intertwined and interrelated and cannot be limited.

At the end of the discussion, the committee recommended accepting the thesis and granting the researcher a PhD in Applied Sociology – Crime and Criminal Justice Specialization.