Curbing drug smuggling

An operation against drug peddlers is underway to prevent the sale of ice, hashish, cocaine

A friend indeed, they say, won’t make you smoke or chew that weed. So in line with this saying the Sindh government has launched a crackdown on makers and sellers of gutka, mainpuri and suchlike things in the province. Now the federal and Sindh governments have decided to launch intelligence-based operations against drug smuggling and peddling. Recently at a high-level meeting in Karachi, attended among others by the federal minister of narcotics, the federal and provincial governments have agreed to share data on drug smugglers and increase vigilance at the borders to curb drug smuggling.

The Sindh chief minister told the meeting that an operation against drug peddlers was underway to prevent the sale of ice, hashish, cocaine, heroin, opium, bhang, gutka, mainpuri and mawa with a special focus on the sale of drugs in educational institutions. The Karachi police have arrested a large number of drug peddlers and seized ice and other drugs. The chief minister admitted that legislation was needed to deal with gutka, mainpuris and other such tobacco preparations. The provincial assembly would soon enact laws in this regard. The Sindh chief secretary and the inspector general of police said the issue needed to be controlled at the borders as, according to them, there was no drug-manufacturing factory in Sindh and Punjab.

The provincial government deserves to be congratulated for banning the manufacture and sale of gutka and other such tobacco preparations. These substances are addictive and lead to decay of teeth and, above all, cause mouth cancer. Since they are no longer available, people are gradually learning to live without them. Besides placing a ban, the government is also taking other effective steps to discourage people from the use of harmful substances. Often we see drug addicts’ journey from home to the gutter and finally to the grave. Drug addiction is a perennial enjoyment of death.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2019.

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