Pakistan's 1.1 million heroin addicts :The surging tsunami

We must fight terrorists, spare no effort to stem the rising tide of sectarianism and immunize our children against polio, but that doesn't mean we lose sight of the even more deadly menace of drug abuse which takes more lives and destroys more homes than all other curses put together. In 1981, only one heroin addict turned up at a Peshawar hospital; his affliction was caused by a narcotic substance introduced in Pakistan by illicit manufacture that fled Islamic Revolution in Iran. In today's Pakistan, there are more than 1.1 million heroin addicts. Over the last three decades while the world has worked hard and greatly succeeded in curbing the use of illicit drugs, in Pakistan, however, a record-breaking 'progress' has been made in the opposite direction.

According to the Drug Use in Pakistan 2013, a report jointly authored the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and Pakistan's concerned departments, nearly 6.4 million Pakistanis are drug addicts. Among them most popular is cannabis (4.8 million), followed by opiates (1.4 million; including 1.1 million heroin addicts) and nearly 0.2 million consumers of amphetamine-type stimulants like solvents, inhalants, alcohol, sheesha, and quite a few others over-the-counter prescription drugs. Some 420,000 of them inject drugs, many by using mutually-shared contaminated syringes at risk of deadly HIV transmission. The incidence of hard drugs such as heroin and cannabis addiction among women is quite low, but it is fairly high (25 percent of the total) in the use of pain-killers, tranquilizers and sedatives. Since drug abuse has acquired epidemic dimensions in Pakistan and appears to be the society's pre-determined fate the softer drugs have come to be accepted as a routine affair, disregarding their no less harmful effects in terms of socioeconomic disharmony. Given our drug abuse national scenario is the end-result of interplay of supply of opiates, cannabis, synthetic and over-the-counter prescription drugs and the obtaining socioeconomic factors much that should be done to confront this challenge is not in sight, yet. And perhaps there is not much possibility for this to happen anytime soon.

But that said it is just not possible not to stand up to this challenge of ever-spreading menace that is eating into the very fabric of national strength, social harmony and economic development. Not that all criminals are drug addicts, but proportionately they are more than others. Not that all Pakistanis arrested on landing foreign airports are narcotic smugglers but their number is significantly high. And the Pakistanis beheaded in Saudi Arabia on the charge of drug smuggling outnumber all others. There is the need to look into this problem through our own microscope, though the UNODC is always there to lend a helping hand. The areas that should come under a sharp focus include supply reduction, demand reduction, treatment-cum- rehabilitation and international co-operation. Nearly all the plant-based opiates reach Pakistan from Afghanistan. Poppy growing had literally stopped during the Taliban government but since their ouster narcotic business has regained its vigour and vitality, earning Afghanistan the top position among the opiates-producing countries. Most of it finds its way to markets abroad through Pakistan, leaving behind hordes of new addicts, bags of illegal money and considerably compromised anti-narcotics management. As for the demand reduction the situation is not very encouraging either. It's essentially the responsibility of society to put in place a suitable mechanism in terms of enhanced family supervision, awareness through education and media. But that's not happening, at least not in quantum adequate enough to obtain a viable anti-narcotic culture. We don't have the kind of 'narcotics-free streets' the US created as it came under a severe attack of Colombian drug cartels. Treatment and rehabilitation of addicts is there but only as an apology - for, it is simply an unachievable task. Of course, the UN and various governments are more than willing to help Pakistan curb and control drug abuse epidemic and they will succeed only as much as their counterparts in Pakistan. Given enormity of challenges to the very existence of the country the government cannot be expected to be fully delivering on this account. That the concerned citizens and civil society should be complacent too is not on. Under the circumstances it is the free, vibrant media, particularly television channels, so much effective in imprinting the public mind, that should come forward and help stem the tsunami of illicit use of drugs by the fellow Pakistanis.