Rehabilitation centers need to be set up across the country to facilitate drug users
GWADAR: Drug abuse in Balochistan is a growing epidemic with little reformative action being taken to correct it. According to a 2013 United Nations report, there are approximately 230,000 drug users in Balochistan.
The location of the Pak-Afghan border and easy movement of people across it allows large quantities of drugs to flow into the country from Afghanistan. While most of the narcotics are intended to just pass through Pakistan and on to other countries, a large chunk of it is used by locals too.
Unluckily, drugs and narcotics trafficking has become the order of the day in Balochistan’s city of Turbat where narcotics is being traded publicly.
According to a 2015 report by Senate’s Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics, nearly 8.9 million people in Pakistan are drug addicts while 700 people die everyday across the country due to drug-related complications.
The severity of dependence amongst opiate users is the highest in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Among regular opiate users, three-fourths make use of more than one substance; the most commonly found combination being of heroin, cannabis and other tranquilising drugs. Balochistan has the highest use of these combinations, with almost 25 per cent of consumers using this, a total of 1.6 per cent of the province’s population.
The intake of drugs through injections has also led to a rise in HIV and blood-borne diseases that are passed through unhygienic and multiple use of syringes. Out of the total number of HIV-positive people of Balochistan, 2.1 per cent were those who had used intravenous drugs.
The effects of substance abuse are felt by many people, either directly or indirectly. The UN estimates that more than 800,000 people between the ages of 15 to 64 are addicted to the use of heroin on a regular basis, in Pakistan.
This is a shocking number as around 44 tons of processed heroin is consumed every year in the country. Despite the efforts of the Anti-Narcotics Force, a lot of work needs to be done to bring this epidemic under control.
Rehabilitation centers need to be set up across the country to facilitate drug users in giving up this addiction, and health centres need to be trained to deal with drug-related emergencies appropriately.
Aqib Dad
Published in The Express Tribune, March 18th, 2019.
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