Drug use has grown to alarming levels
Lately, our problems with terrorism seem to have clouded out some of the deeper, more lingering problems that have arisen out of not keeping our house in order. Drug addiction, especially in youth, has been a growing problem for decades, and now seems to have assumed frightening proportions. According to a joint finding by the Pakistani government and the UN office on drugs and crime, more than four million Pakistanis are addicted to drugs. It is a comprehensive document, yet other than the startling figure, it tells of little that has not already long been known.
Granted, Pakistan is right next door to poppy superpower Afghanistan, and the porous border helps drugs, weapons and militants alike cross over easily and infiltrate our society; and this is chief among commodities where supply creates its own demand. And yes, there is that social factor – poverty, depression, lack of opportunity – that always feeds regressive behavior like drug addiction. And once hooked on, the habit perpetuates a cycle of crime in individuals and groups alike, inducing the intention to break the law to acquire more drugs, meaning breaking the law repeatedly. But we have also known of remedies that work, and failed to employ them for far too long. Effectively controlling addiction, especially on such a large scale, involves not only discouraging future potential addicts, but also helping those presently caught in this nightmare overcome it, instead of casting them aside. And, in the longer term, we will also have to bring more rationality to society, make government institutions perform, revive the economy, and provide employment, opportunity and pride to people.
In more ways than one, it seems, Pakistan is at a critical crossroads. Once a leading light among emerging nations, especially within the Muslim world, we have come to be identified as a textbook breakdown case. Our leaders have mostly kept sights on issues and games for removed from the common man’s basic requirements. We have figured in existential outside wars, sided with superpowers, helped bring down superpowers, and even produced the Islamic bomb. Yet our institutions have collapsed, poverty is rampant, society has stagnated, and the standard of education is appalling. In schools and colleges alike, children pick up drug addiction, and join those bloating hordes on the streets already thriving on crime. Our national human resource negligence ought to qualify as a crime in itself. While the government is engaged in ending militancy, it must also move aggressively to arrest this unnerving social collapse, or subsequent rebuilding of society will be that much harder. The world is full of examples of nations that found the national will to overcome problems and rise. It is in this category that we must look to fall, rather than the basket case we have become. The time is now and the leadership must deliver or acknowledge its inability to face Pakistan’s most pressing problems.
