IN Pakistan, heads are shaken often over the ills, such as poverty and illiteracy, that beset much of the population, dimming the prospects of the country’s future being more productive.

But there’s one debilitating problem that is so ugly in its contours that society in general and policymakers in particular tend to simply shy away from addressing it: that of drug abusers and addicts.

The problem is huge, though. According to a report released on Thursday on Drug Use in Pakistan 2013, launched by the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime and supported by the federal ministry of interior and narcotics control, more than a million Pakistanis are regular heroin or opium users.

Know more: Over one million Pakistanis hooked on opiates: study

Some 430,000 people are estimated to be injecting drug users, of which 73pc reported that they shared syringes.

This figure illustrates how fast the drug addiction issue can lead to other, deeply problematic health consequences. UNODC representative Cesar Guedes, who presented the findings, said that some 42pc of injecting drug users in Karachi alone, for example, had contracted HIV, and countless others faced the risk of being infected by this and other blood-communicable viruses such as Hepatitis C.

And let it not be forgotten that once contracted, blood-borne illnesses can be communicated to spouses and children, to make them victims too of a spiral of often fatal sickness.

There have been several pushes over the years to counter the spread and use of drugs in society. While success has been achieved here and there, overall the problem has not been eradicated, and the matter has — especially in terms of interventions and medical care for drug addicts — been left largely to the non-governmental sector to address.

What is required is a concerted push, perhaps led by the centre and in conjunction with the provincial governments, to form a holistic, multi-pronged strategy at several levels.

For example, potential drug abusers often tend to be from among the poorest sections of society; children who grow up on the streets, labourers, etc, are often far more vulnerable. They need to be made aware of the danger and helped in improving life conditions.

Meanwhile, the constitution of drugs in the country, smuggling and sale needs to be brought to a halt — we need much more seriousness on this count. But drug abuse won’t end until the demand is brought down; that can only happen when the state decides to invest in its citizenry.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2014