'10 million people using hard, soft drugs across country'

Expressing grave concern over alarming surge in cases of drug addiction in Pakistan, Director Drug Advisory Training Hub (DATH) Syed Zulifqar Hussain Tuesday said there are estimated 10 million drug addicts in the country using both hard and soft drugs.
Speaking at a media training workshop on drug use prevention at Aiwan-e-Iqbal, Hussain said the use of drugs is increasing among students which are a serious matter for which all the stakeholders need to evolve a multi-pronged strategy to protect the youth.
"The menace of drug addiction has already inflicted a sizable number of our population, including the youth, demanding urgent and fool-proof measures to combat it," he said. "We have to join hands for developing a healthy environment for our youth in particular and people in general to help them avoid the addiction trap."
Syed Zulifqar Hussain maintained that high school, college and university students have emerged as soft targets of narcotics business. He said close coordination among parents, teachers and government agencies working against the menace, along with other sections of society, was urgently needed to protect the youth. He asked the new government to include the issue of drug addiction in priority agenda to protect the people from ill effects of drug addiction.