Minister of State for Narcotics Control Shehryar Afridi on Wednesday said that the government would bring a legislation to effectively nab those involved in drug business. Addressing the launching ceremony of World Drug Report 2019 on International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking (June 26), the minister said that use of drugs had increased in educational institutions and it was the responsibility of parents and teachers to keep a check on the students.
The Ministry of Narcotics Control, Anti-Narcotics Force and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), country office Pakistan, in partnership with World Health Organisation jointly commemorated the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
Afridi said the federal government had launched a war on illicit drugs under the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan and drug barons and mafia groups protecting drug business would be targeted in the first phase of the campaign. It is unfortunate to note that the past regimes did not take serious steps to eradicate illicit business of drugs.
He said due to ignorant policies, the youth had fallen prey to the menace of drugs. He said the Ministry of Narcotics Control would take along all domestic and international stakeholders to rid the country of the menace of drug.
He said Pakistan would adopt successful models of the world for eradication of drug menace, and would employ modern research and technology tools to help block the movement of drugs. He said the government would also introduce institutional reforms, besides launching public awareness, to curtail the drug abuse.
Afridi said the international community should also help Pakistan in eradication of menace of drugs as saving a life was saving the entire humanity. The minister said Pakistan government was employing modern equipment and innovative ideas in its war on drugs.
Afridi said the government was preparing new legislation to effectively nab those involved in drugs business and urged the people to monitor activities of their young kids and avoid building pressure for better grades over their children so that youth could be saved from drugs addiction.
Pakistan was fighting against the menace of narcotics which was haunting the globe and initiatives taken by the country to that effect have worldwide recognition, said the minister, adding that world community to come forward and join hands to curb drug abuse as it was damaging the youth.
Afridi said government had a firm resolve to deal with criminals involved in drug trafficking with an iron hand. Hr further said Pakistan had become poppy free country since 2001 despite increased production of poppy in neighbouring Afghanistan.
He said the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) with meagre staff and scarce resources had managed to sustain the ambitious poppy free status of the country amid diverse challenges and constraints. The ANF had 29 police stations across the country with only 2,900 personnel available to curb illicit drug trafficking and control modern intoxicating soporific substances' proliferation in the educational institutions across the country, he added.
According to the world drug report, other routes take heroin out of Afghanistan via Pakistan to South Asia or Africa (the southern route), or through Central Asia to markets in the Russian Federation (the northern route). However, those routes seem to be less important, and that importance is declining further, as in the case of the northern route. In 2008, 10 per cent of global heroin and morphine interceptions were made in countries along the northern route; by 2017, this had fallen to one percent.
A small number of countries account for a large proportion of the number of PWID globally living with HIV. When combined, three countries (China, Pakistan and the Russian Federation) account for 33 percent of PWID worldwide but are home to almost one half (47 percent) of PWID living with HIV.
The largest quantities of cannabis resin seized were reported by Spain, followed by Pakistan and Morocco. For the second year in a row, the largest amounts of heroin and morphine seized in 2017 were reported by Afghanistan, followed by the Islamic Republic of Iran and Pakistan.
The report further states the high prevalence of opioid use in those sub-regions is driven by use in Afghanistan, Iran (Islamic Republic of) and Pakistan; however, there are differences in the nature of the opioid problem in those countries.
In Pakistan, opioid use is more mixed: in 2012, notwithstanding poly-drug use among opioid users, of the estimated 2.7 million opioid users, 1.6 million were also reported the non-medical use of pharmaceutical opioids, whereas over one million people were estimated to be regular opiate users, of whom the majority was heroin users (860,000) while one-third were opium users (320,000 users). Although the use of opiates (heroin and opium) was much higher among men than women in Pakistan, a similar proportion of men and women reported non-medical use of pharmaceutical opioids in the country.
Speaking on the occasion Director General ANF Major General Arif Malik called the international community for cooperation to eliminate the menace of drug abuse.
He said Pakistan had been a poppy free country since 2001 which was an achievement despite being the neighbour of Afghanistan. The DG said Anti-Narcotics Force had carried out a countrywide awareness campaign in educational institutions.
Talking on the occasion, Secretary Narcotics Amjad Javed Saleemi said, "This day reminds us that it is our moral duty to endeavour to save our near and dear ones from the curse of narcotic drugs. Ministry of Narcotics Control is working vigorously to get Pakistan rid of menace of narcotics; however complete eliminations of this evil needs concerted efforts from all segments of society."
WHO Representative Dr Palitha Mahipala said tobacco was the leading risk factor towards the drug use and, in fact, it was a first step towards that menace. Tobacco is the only legal drug that kills many of its users. WHO has estimated that tobacco use, whether smoking or smokeless, is currently responsible for the annual global death of 8 million people, many of whom die prematurely. This includes over 600,000 people estimated to die from the effects of second-hand smoke.
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