The government has prepared a master plan to curb the menace of drug abuse in a more effective way wherein special attention has been given to provide training and research facilities for women.
Joint Secretary Anti-Narcotics Division Anwer Hafiz Khan disclosed this while addressing the concluding ceremony of a five-day training workshop on "counselling and treatment of women with substance abuse problems" here on Friday.
He said the plan would be launched within few months, after that a rigorous campaign will be launched to curb the evil practice and to achieve a poppy free country status this year.
Anwer said Pakistan has expressed serious challenges in recent decades and has been affected by the large scale trafficking of illicit drugs from Afghanistan, which has increased the number of drug users and now contributes to the threat of HIV/AIDS.
He said women are often direct and indirect victims of the cycle between drug consumption and poverty as they mostly depend on male family members and suffer from severe difficulties arising from having addicted husband or father.
In order to improve the knowledge base on women and drug abuse in Pakistan, a considerable ratio of women addicts has been observed during a recent study conducted in the country, he said.
"During this study many women expressed that they found difficulty to receive treatment or counselling on drug addiction," he said, adding the government has set up two model rehabilitation and treatment centers for drug addicts each in Islamabad and Quetta and has plan to extend these at provincial levels.
"Women experience social, culture and personal barriers to treatment entry which include shame and guilt associated with substance abuse and related problems among woman, fear of losing custody of children, lack of partner and other family support to go to treatment and lack of confidence for treatment."
He expressed the hope that the training programme, which was conducted by Anti Narcotics Force in collaboration with UN Office on Drug and Crimes (UNODC) will equip people to face the problem.
He expressed gratitude to UNODC, donors and Australian and Iranian instructors for successful conduct of the training course. Anwer said that under the training course, fifth of this series, 32 persons including 27 females and five male were trained in counselling and treatment of women with substance abuse problems.
He said these courses will be conducted frequently in future and the number of participants will also be raised. The ANF in co-ordination with media will launch an awareness campaign across the country, he added.
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