KHYBER: A rapid increase in use of ecstasy pills and ice (crystal meth) by majority of youth has alarmed parents, health professionals and civil society activists in Khyber tribal district.

Information collected by this scribe about the excessive use of ecstasy pills and ice by local youth unfolds a horrifying situation as the drug is now considered an essential ‘ingredient’ in social gatherings like weddings, engagements and other festive or recreational ceremonies owing to its easy availability throughout Khyber.

Locals said that a majority of youth had gone out of the control of their parents or other family members as those two ‘lethal’ drugs were easily available in designated shops, kiosks, private houses and hujras and even outside educational institutions and sports grounds where those could be supplied through motorcycles or young carriers by using mobile phone service in all the three tehsils of Khyber.

Ghafoor Shah, a social activist in Landi Kotal, said that local drug addicts invented their own names for different types of ecstasy pills like Firoun, Trump, Kabaiga, Silver and Local, depending upon the ‘efficacy’ of those drugs.

Experts say effects of these drugs include hallucination, memory loss and psychosis

He said that such pills were openly offered to users during different types of parties at varying prices while reluctant or refusing youngsters were then ‘administered’ those pills either in a cool drink or green tea to make them addicts.

Ayaz Khan, a resident of Jamrud, told this scribe that initially parents were not aware about the negative effects of those drugs and ignored warnings by close relatives about addiction of their sons to ice and ecstasy pills but now they were mostly helpless to prevent such addicts from use of drugs.

Dr Feroz Shah, a health expert, was equally apprehensive about the spiralling use and sale of such lethal drugs and cautioned about serious health complications as their long term implications.

He said that excessive use of ecstasy pills mainly affected the central nervous system with short term or immediate effects such as increase in heartbeat, fast breathing and an addict becoming more alert, awake for a long time and talkative and in highly joyous mode.

“These are the signs and effects of these highly addictive pills, which attract most of our unemployed and depressed youth towards it with little or no knowledge of their worst side effects on their health,” he said.

He said that being highly addictive, long term effects of ecstasy pills could include depression, hallucination, memory loss, psychosis and other related mental issues among young users.

Dr Feroz Shah argued that most of addicts themselves or their relatives did not report those matters to doctors for possible treatment or therapy for fear of social stigma and lack of awareness about possible rehabilitation of addicts.

Sources said that absence of a specialist psychiatrist at the district headquarters hospital was hampering psychological treatment of such addicts as medical professionals contended that so far no proper medicine was discovered for treatment of such patients, except psychiatric counselling.

With Khyber police regularly claiming seizure of varying quantities of different types of illegal drugs, sources at Wazir Dhand market in Jamrud alleged that the illegal business was ‘thriving’ unhindered as police accepted ‘monthly’ from drug dealers.

They said that big time drug dealers ‘deputed’ their touts at different convenient points in the vicinity of Wazir Dhand market, situated on the border with Peshawar, to provide ice and ecstasy pills to interested buyers after issuing them a token for easy identification.

They said that currently Wazir Dhand market was considered the main ‘repository’ of illegal drugs including heroin, charas, ice and ecstasy pills with local police in complete knowledge of the daily ‘wheeling and dealing’ by dealers.

Replying to Dawn queries about the rise in use and sale of these drugs, DPO Rae Mazhar Iqbal claimed police seized huge quantity of drugs. He said that the menace could be wiped out with collective efforts.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2025