PESHAWAR, Nov 21: There are about 500,000 heroin addicts in the country and the use of the drug is increasing, the Anti-Narcotics Force said on Sunday.

The ANF said in a statement issued here that it had planned to launch an awareness programme against the use of heroin and a two-day workshop had been organized in this regard from Tuesday. Narcotics Control Minister Ghous Bakhsh Khan Mehar will be the chief guest, according to a press release issued by the ANF.

Poppy cultivation in Pakistan was nil in 2000, which was endorsed by the United Nations, but it started again after the surge poppy sowing in Afghanistan, it said. It said that according to latest statistics 80 per cent of the heroin addicts in the country aged between 18 and 25 years.

It said the ANF would send teams to every district to inform people about the hazardous effect of the drug on individuals and the society. Member of local governments and district coordination officers would be involved in the campaign, it said.

ANF teams would visit heroin addiction treatment centres in every district to check their performance and establish new centres where needed, it said. The force would organise seminars on the issue and collaborate with school management's to increase boys' sports activities. The ANF was working in the past to stop heroin smuggling to other countries but now it had focused to stop the menace within the country, it said.