Maps
Magazine

Pakistan And its struggle with drug abuse
Pakistan is a country which has lived in turmoil for ages, sadly this is the country which has largest number of frustrated youth, who not only resort to drugs for solace, but are addicted to it in order to survive. So in order to keep themselves sane, Pakistani youth is killing itself.
aq
by amal qureshi
2023-04-02
Pakistan And its struggle with drug abuse

Pakistan is a country which has lived in turmoil for ages, sadly this is the country which has largest number of frustrated youth, who not only resort to drugs for solace, but are addicted to it in order to survive. So in order to keep themselves sane, Pakistani youth is killing itself.

 

Drug abuse is serious offense in Pakistan, and the government has taken various measures to control the spread of drugs in the country. The main legislation that governs drug-related crimes in Pakistan is the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997.

 

Under this act, possession, use, sale, purchase, and transportation of drugs are all considered criminal offense. The severity of the punishment depends on the nature and quantity of the drug involved.

 

If we focus on statistics, Authorities say that rough estimates so far suggest that some 9 million people or slightly over 4% population of Pakistan are currently affected by different types of narcotics compared to approximately 6% of people in 2013.

 

The current estimates, notwithstanding, are based on several small surveys and as the country's anti-narcotics authorities have not carried out a proper survey to figure out the number of affected since 2013 due to "unavailability of budget."

 

According to the last survey jointly conducted by the ministry and the UNODC, the number of opiate users was 6.7 million. Out of them 13% were women. Pakistan is believed to be on the key route of heroin smuggling from neighboring Afghanistan, which produces 90% of the world's total opium.

 

Afghan opium is trafficked across the world, the so-called "southern route" is used for drug smuggling to Africa and middle-east via Arabian sea, whereas the traditional "northern route" or the "Balkan route"- is used to ship opium to Europe through land via Iran, Türkiye, and Russia.

 

Southwestern Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is said to be a key transit point for drug trafficking between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Traditionally, chars and bhang (prepared from leaves of the cannabis plant) had long been the most-used drugs in Pakistan.

 

Bhang as per the surveys are widely used in Pakistan, and nowadays, Marijuana, locally known as "Charas" or "Ganja", is considered the most commonly used drug among the youth in Pakistan.

 

Other drugs that are commonly used by the youth in Pakistan include heroin, and synthetic drugs like crystal methamphetamine, locally known as "Ice". However, it's important to note that drug addiction is becoming serious problem in Pakistan, especially when underage kids resort to it.

 

There is a research study from china, the researcher said the drugs make a person mentally ill, the disorder is known as Paranoid Personality Disorder, believing that others are constantly trying to demean, harm, or threaten them but interestingly the other person is actually concern for them.

 

Sometimes a sense of isolation also prevails in person due to his drug addiction, constant use drug changes and affects the personality. We have seen numerous cases where a young teen is said to be depressed all the time, trying to get attention for fakeness, and in order to grab more attention, to look really sad, they resort to drug abuse. How many times we have heard that a son assaulted her mother because he was on drugs, or a father killed their children due to drug abuse. These are extreme examples, but if we look closely we might find that in every baseless suicide or any murderous rage has an episode of drug abuse supporting it.

 

Drug abuse has to be stopped, but interesting thing about drug is that you can’t force people to not have drugs, the more you stop people through force the more people will resort to it. Some of the countries in the world have successfully minimized the drug abuse, they have not done it through force, instead they have educated their children how some things are harmful and if abused can be lethal.
Tagged:
Share News: