ISLAMABAD: Initially, drug addiction either begins in fun, for momentary pleasure, or just to get acceptable in a particular social circle, but it surly ends up to devastate the individual as well as tehir family.

Experts believe that Pakistan’s goal to become a drug-free society can be achieved through creating awareness at the grassroots level against the deadly addiction.

It is possible to achieve the goal when people get the ability to understand the repercussions of addiction to save the future of the coming generations. Therefore, Pakistan is striving hard to eliminate drugs to achieve the set goal of a “drug-free society” besides vigorously executing its globally assigned tasks with utmost dedication and determination.

For this purpose, nationwide anti-drug awareness campaigns are launched in collaboration with public and private educational institutions to keep the younger generation safe and away from the curse.

Protecting youth from menace inevitable for prosperous future of Pakistan, says official

The campaigns are aimed at creating awareness among students and citizens about the lethality of drugs and measures for its prevention, a senior official of the Ministry of Narcotics Control told this agency.

He said the youth was Pakistan’s greatest asset, which constituted 66pc of the population. They are our future and we have to protect them from the harms of drug addiction.

Protecting the country’s youth and the future generation from the menace was inevitable for the prosperous future of Pakistan, he said, adding to protect our youth the ANF was working tirelessly in coordination with other law enforcement agencies.

A spokesperson for the ANF said the department was playing a leading role in mass awareness and community participation programmes to educate the people against drug abuse.

“We are constantly putting our efforts at the national and international level.”

He stressed concerted efforts by all quarters concerned to fight the menace of drug addiction, particularly among youth.

He said while conducting raids in different areas of the country, the ANF managed to recover over 4,716 kgs of narcotics and arrested 81 alleged drug smugglers in August and September.

Dozens of bids were also foiled to smuggle narcotics to foreign countries and the drug smugglers were sent behind bars, the spokesperson said.

He said the ANF had achieved significant successes in all three regimes of operation - drug supply reduction, drug demand reduction and international cooperation.

The spokesperson said the ANF was also running four model addiction and treatment centres in Islamabad, Karachi, Hyderabad and Sakkar and had treated over 12,500 patients so far.

Federal Minister for Narcotics Control Nawabzada Shazain Bugti said his ministry wanted to recruit around 10,000 personnel from across the country to effectively combat the menace of drugs. He said the ministry had sought permission from the prime minister for the recruitment.

Currently, the minister said, the ministry”s staff strength was 3,600 as its personnel were performing duties at airports, ports and other border areas. He said the ministry was in contact with education ministries and provincial governments for legislation to prevent drug-selling activities in educational institutions. It has been proposed to impose a fine amounting to Rs2 million over those educational institutions where drug-selling would be found, while Rs4 million on those found involved in selling narcotics there, he added.

The minister said annual seizure of narcotics in Pakistan stood at $8 billion and drugs worth $3 billion had been recently burnt in Quetta.

Pakistan has recently launched the next phase of the country programme in collaboration with the World Anti-Doping Agency, which includes separate barracks in prisons for drug addicts and a national database of drug offenders, as well as anti-drug drugs. In addition, a total of 40,000 people will receive special training about drugs, he said.

He said the ANF in its counter-narcotics strikes across the country has recovered 9,558 kg of drugs, and 27.784 kg of prohibited chemicals and arrested 222 accused in 2021. It also conducted 167 awareness activities to educate the masses against drugs.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2022