This pertains to ‘World Anti-Narcotics Day’ which will be observed on Wednesday, 26th June. Pakistan was always at a peril of becoming a victim of drugs abuse due to mass production of narcotics in Afghanistan which is the largest narcotics producer in the world with an estimated global opiate market share of 93 percent.
The history of drug supply, particularly heroin in the country, dates back to 1979 after the Afghan War. Before that time, Europe was the biggest international drug market, where drugs had been smuggled from Afghanistan via Iran and Turkey. The billions of dollars generated from illicit drugs fuel terrorist activities and abet other crimes such as human trafficking and the smuggling of arms and people.
One of the surveys conducted recently tells us the main reason is the lack of education which forces the youth to do drugs. Law enforcement agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the education department need to work together to devise special drug prevention programmes to prevent the youth from falling victims to drug traffickers.
TALHA TARIQ CHAUDHRY
Sargodha
