PESHAWAR: Speakers at an interactive session here on Saturday called upon youth to switch over to healthy activities on the campus to alleviate their stress and improve their mental and physical health.

They urged the trio of parents, teachers and religious scholars to help youth become aware of hazards of drugs abuse and its dangerous impact on their wellbeing and society at large.

The session titled ‘drugs abuse-- major factors, challenges and way forward’ was organised under the auspices of Students Anti-drugs Society (SAS) of a local college. Students, faculty members, old alumni and rights activists attended the event.

Speakers said that around 1,238 drugs addicts were picked up from different sites of the city during the drugs-free Peshawar drive launched by a joint team of excise, police, district administration and social welfare department.

Speakers urge parents and teachers to inform students about hazards of drug use

They said that young addicts were shifted to eight rehabilitation centres. They added that both male and female addicts hailing from across KP were involved in taking illicit substances mostly crystal meth.

Prof Iftikhar Ahmad Khan, head of the institution, said that unhealthy environment plagued by numerous threats including rising trend of drugs abuse among students had increased responsibilities of parents, teachers and religious scholars manifold.

He said that involvement of school, college and university going students in drug abuse was a sign of sheer negligence of stakeholders be it parents, teachers and society at large.

Dr Azlan Aslam from excise police in his keynote address pointed out that unfortunately youth within age bracket of 13 to 25 were found being addicted to using drugs in its several forms to reduce stress and enjoy short-lived fantasy thus ended up with devastation of their future career and families.

Recalling his past memories being old alumni of the institution, he termed students hailing from Gilgit-Baltistan, Balochistan and parts of KP including tribal districts to be fortunate to enjoy a safe and conducive environment for quality education. Other institutions should also arrange such events for their students, he added.

Enumerating major factors behind rising trend of drugs abuse among youth, he said that most parents and guardians failed to have a vigilant eye on daily routine and physical and mental health of their wards and instead forced them to perform well in the fields not actually chosen in most cases by students themselves.

He said that excessive use of social media also added to their miseries. Easy availability of illicit drugs substances on the campuses, bad company of students and lack of healthy activities on the campuses also contributed to the rising menace among youth, Mr Aslam regretted.

Talking about the way forward, he said that all educational institutions should set up a special unit having experts to keep a close eye on daily routine of students on the campus with back home follow-ups alongside encouraging them to participate in sports and cultural activities for staying away from drugs abuse.

The talk was followed by question and answer session in which participants came up with queries regarding preventive measures and precautions against drugs abuse in any form before, during and after study hours.

The guest speaker at the end administered oath to newly-selected cabinet members namely Usman Dawar, Tausif Khan, Jawad Khan, Raheel Khan and Hasamuddin Khan.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2025