THE country has an old drug problem. While the menace has raged across divides of class and gender, successive rulers have failed to clear its fatal fog. Recently, the CIA busted an international drug trafficking ring in Lahore; it supplied illegal substances to the youth including those in educational institutions in Punjab and smuggled hard drugs out of the country. The agency claims to have recovered “the largest-ever quantity of cocaine”. But the raid is far from a first: in May, the Lahore police’s Organised Crime Unit caught the Jordan Gang, another ‘international’ network selling designer and party drugs to upper-crust youngsters. The provincial police head stated in April that the force conducted over 300 raids in a day and made 125 arrests. Despite the scale at which these drug mafias operate, and the narcotics seized in drug hauls, the authorities expect to succeed without fixing the cause. An SSDO report in May revealed that conviction rates under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act (1997) fell drastically: from 16pc in 2022, it sank to 2pc in 2023 in Punjab.

Additionally, the decline shows that grave flaws in the investigation and trial procedures have only helped culprits evade stipulated penalties. This means that little will change unless the criminal justice system undergoes extensive reforms. With news about police officers — 234 were mentioned in a report in March — being embroiled in the drug trade, it is obvious that neither the police-narcotic cartel nexus nor political patronage of the abhorrent market can be allowed to persist. The government must prioritise investing in the security force with manpower, financial incentives and modern equipment, otherwise crackdowns will remain futile. Social and environmental forces fuel drug abuse among frustrated youth; tackling a mental health crisis is critical for successful substance abuse prevention. It is not advisable to humiliate the young with drug tests in educational facilities. Instead, the state should fight the curse with sensitivity.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2024