Drugs on campus: Substance abuse victims need help

Speakers says drug addicts need family, community support to return to normal life

ISLAMABAD: No peril in life justifies escape to drugs, speakers said at a lecture to create awareness among youth about substance abuse.

“Life is not easy, one has to work hard, stay positive and stay strong to achieve a stable life,” Karim Khan Afridi Welfare Foundation (KKAWF) Chairperson Cristina Von Sperling Afridi said, warning women against ill effects of substance abuse.

She was speaking at Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU) Department of Women Research and Resource Centre (WRRC) on Monday during a lecture on "Youth and Drug Abuse" to educate the students about negative effects of drug abuse in terms of serious behavioural and emotional changes in one's life.

Presenting her analysis of the rising issue of drug abuse in Pakistan, she shared her personal loss which motivated her to stand up against this menace and to make Pakistan a drug-free country. A retired diplomat from Brazil, Afridi had lost her son to drug abuse in 2014.

“Our society has those malicious and brutal elements which cause child abuse, domestic violence, rapes, human rights abuses like kidnapping and other kinds of traumas which leave behind a lifetime of psychological effects on a child,” Afridi said.

She said drug users need help and they could be brought back to normalcy whereby they would eventually become active members of society, if the family and community initiate combined efforts.

Lubna Ghani said that our mission is to disseminate knowledge on the adverse effects of drug use on individual's, family and society and to break the taboos that exist regarding drug use and enable people to reach out for help.

The foundation aims to play a role of a catalyst for the youth and the communities they live in, by engaging federal and provincial governments to take up the task through policy making on drug production, prevention and use. In the last FJWU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Samina Amin Qadir and WRRC Director Dr Shaheena Ayub Bhatti presented souvenirs to Afridi and Ghani.  

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2018.