KARACHI: Effective media drive stressed to curb drug abuse
KARACHI, May 31: Federal Minister for Narcotics Control Ghous Bukhsh Mehar stating that drugs are being produced in Afghanistan and smuggled into Pakistan via different routes stressed that a stern action was essential to check the drug supply from Afghanistan.
He was addressing as chief guest at a seminar on ‘Media awareness on drug abuse: a ray for hope’, organised by the United Nations Association of Pakistan (UNAP) and Anti-Narcotics Force, Sindh.
The federal minister said that the narcotics control ministry was trying to import scientific machines from some European countries. He said that the machines would be installed at Pakistan-Afghan border to check the movement of drugs. He said that the USA was helping the ministry in this regard.
He said that inter-provincial communication was necessary for making any plan of the ministry successful. He said that Rehabilitation Centres throughout the country would be established in this regard. Initially, he said, the rehabilitation centres would be built at Sukkur, Multan and Hyderabad this year.
Stressing the need to employ effective media campaigns, he said that public perception about the drug addicts could be changed. He said that addiction was a treatable ailment, but due to lack of awareness addicts were seen as criminal in the society while in fact they were patients in need of special attention and proper care.
To get rid of the menace, awareness programmes and media campaigns at district, taluka and union council levels were necessary, he said adding that the country was facing some serious challenges in this respect. He also discussed the need to eliminate poverty, ignorance and pessimistic approach related to addiction for bringing an end to the growing menace.
Sindh Local Bodies Adviser Waseem Akhtar said that drug production and addiction for the last 20 years was on the rise affecting the positive image of Pakistan. He said that the issue had always been overshadowed by many of the existing problems such as poverty, illiteracy and lack of basic healthcare.
He said that the authorities had destroyed poppy crop grown on some 3,000-acre lands in different areas in the NWFP and in Balochistan.
He said that the issue of drug abuse needed immediate attention suggesting that print and electronic media could play an effective role in creating awareness in this regard. “Adequate treatment facilities for drug addicts should be made part of all existing and future healthcare centres and hospitals and there is an urgent need to conduct a new national survey on drug abuse to study present and emerging trends of drug abuse in the country,” he said.
Waseem Akhtar said that programmes on the prevention of drug abuse should be launched at school and college level, besides research and studies at university level for the prevention of drug abuse.
ANF Director-General Maj-Gen Khalid Amir Jafferi said that the role of media was pre-requisite for making the country free of drugs. He regretted that a vast number of human skills were being lost because of the increasing drug abuse. He said that most of the addicts were the youth, who could play an enormous role in the socioeconomic development of the country.
He said that social factors such as poverty, illiteracy, lack of proper nurturing by the parents were also the cause drug use in the country.
He said that the ANF through its strategy had made a breakthrough in the control of narcotics production, processing, trafficking and abuse. He asked the NGOs working for the prevention of drug abuse to come forward and help the government controlling drug abuse.
ANF Director Anwar Hafiz said that drug abuse was a multifaceted social malaise and had affected the Pakistani society in most dreadful and treacherous forms. “Indeed, the addiction rate cannot be contained without the adoption of multiple approaches to counter powerful drug cartels,” he said adding that the solution lies in making the general public, particularly youth and other vulnerable groups, alive to the ill-effects of drug abuse.
The US Consul-General, Marry H. Witt, said that collective efforts were needed for controlling the drug addiction in Pakistan and media could play a miracle role controlling drug addiction.
Karachi University’s Sociology Department Chairman Prof (Dr) Fateh Muhammad Burfat said that social issues led one to drug addiction. He said that elimination of poverty, ignorance and pessimistic approach were necessary for bringing an end to drug addiction in the country.
Brother Norman of the Mari Adelaide Rehabilitation Centre said that religious education was also necessary for controlling drug addiction, as the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) stressed on the prohibition of this menace. He said that Islam favoured a complete ban on menace of drugs.
Among others, UNAP President H.Z. Iqbal Chishti, UNAP Director Fazia Tariq; ANF Commander Brig Farooq Shaukat, and Dr Ishaq Sarhindi of Dow university also spoke on the occasion. —PPI
