Drug addiction has made steady inroads in our community by eroding almost all segments of society. This monster is playing with the lives of our populace and has snuffed out many happy lives without any remorse.
Afghanistan is acknowledged to be the largest producer of opium in the world. On the other hand, our areas of FATA, KPK, and Balochistan are not far behind in the cultivation of narcotics. Many families thrive on this business for the sake of their survival. Nonetheless, today’s Pakistan has been declared a poppy-free country by the UN.
According to a UN report, cannabis is widely cultivated and is cheaply and easily available. Pakistan being the primary conduit for drug trafficking from Afghanistan has become primary victim of its adversity. Even though, the price of opium has been increasing world over; unfortunately, in Pakistan there are more than 628,000 opiate users and out of which almost 500,000(77%) are heroin addicts.
The number of injecting drug users (IDUs) is exploding at phenomenal proportions and is the main cause of the HIV/AIDS transmission. Another report reveals that majority of opiate users were heroin addicts and the remaining were addicted to opium, hashish, and synthetic substances.
A survey of drug users showed that around eight percent were diagnosed with HIV, 19% with tuberculosis and almost 11% with Hepatitis. Majority of these addicts ranged in between age of 16 to 30 years, with a smaller minority ranging in between 31 to 40 years and beyond.
Drug trafficking also identifies with gun and human smuggling through cross-border infiltration by the militants. Through the porous Afghan border, these drugs cross into the Iran, Pakistan, and Central Asian States. Modus operandi adopted by the drug smugglers to traffic drugs internationally includes smuggling by foot, roads, rails, and air.
Pakistan being the key transit hub for Afghan drugs has been involuntarily implicated in the unwanted trade. This is a billion dollars swap which is a flourishing business for drug mafias and militants. Approximately 65,000 cultivators belonging to extremist drug syndicates cultivate enough drugs in Helmand to procure drugs for 1500 paddlers which is enough to create a substantial black market economy. The drug trade not only challenges state’s writ but also plays a major role in strengthen links between drug traffickers, Taliban insurgents and criminals.
The book titled ‘Narco Jihad’ by Ehsan Ahrari posits that “a Narco jihad is being funded by the opium related systems of trade in narcotics in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Terrorist groups and trans-national drug and crime syndicates are involved in protection, price control, and distribution of opium to regional and global markets”. The whole game is managed by the “iron triangle” of corrupt officials, the militants, and the warlords.
We have been unconsciously living with this menace without realising its true horrors. We need diversification in our eradication efforts pertaining to drug trafficking. These efforts include sealing the border, denying the militants safe havens, and educating our public about this peril. We also need to follow the money trail to cut the funding which supports these nefarious activities.
To achieve this, all involved agencies have to be vigilant and the government needs to introduce a new task force which will have the capacity and capability to deal specifically with money trail which is the life line for these despicable organisations. Economic growth and improvement in law and order will jump start fragile economies of Pakistan and Afghanistan which will alleviate poverty by new job creations, eventually, cleansing our societies from this nuisance.
Government of Pakistan is utilising its limited resources to their fullest extent. However, to control the dispersion of psychotropic benzodiazepines, we need to adopt a new prescription drug policy which will have sufficient safeguards to enforce the flow of these drugs. There is a need to identify the criminals through surveillance and close monitoring.
Pakistan and India have signed an MOU to enhance the cooperation between these two countries which will help stem the flow of narcotics. It is moral obligation for our policy makers and civil society to educate our society about nuances of drug use so we can eradicate this sinister phenomenon. We can’t resolve these problems on the fly. The task at hand is hard but as a nation we have the ability and perseverance to exterminate this malignant cancer from our society at large.
BRIG (Retd) NAZIR SHAMS
Lahore
