Drug addiction and stats

It is said there are lies, white lies and statistics. This can be applied to the claim made by the minister of state for interior that around 20pc college and university students of Islamabad are drug addicts.

A survey conducted by the Department of Sociology of the Quaid-e-Azam University has however contradicted the claim saying no more than 2pc students in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar are regular drug users.

The investigators of QAU said the confusion was caused by a ‘secret’ report by an NGO and quoted by the media had caused hype about the unusually high rates of drug abuse in educational institutions. Basing his claim on the NGO report, minister of state Shehryar Afridi recently said 75pc of female students and 45pc of male students in the capital are addicted to drugs, including crystal myth or ice.

The QAU’s survey, which covered educational institutions in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar, found that 21pc students from public and private institutions do not consider drug abuse posing health and societal risks, but most students — 79pc — believed that drugs can have negative consequences for health and on social aspects of life such as family, education and job prospects.

Based on every day observation we find the results of the survey conducted by the university close to reality. It should come as a relief. The NGO’s findings may be exaggerated but it cannot be dismissed altogether as hearsay. It is generally seen that students coming from affluent families are mostly attracted to drugs more under peer pressure or as fashion, in that 2pc they should be forming an overwhelming majority.

What lends credence to this opinion is the fact that drugs like ice and cocaine are too pricey and so are beyond the reach of people with modest incomes.

The easy availability of drugs in the country, however, shows the state has failed to eradicate the menace. Has the state its own reasons to turn a blind eye to the nefarious trade?

 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9^th, 2019.

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