More than 684,000 people have become addict of drugs especially heroine who are using different ways of taking narcotics in the country. According to information gathered from different sources including Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) here on Friday, out of these addicts, 125,000 people take drugs through injections.
Most of the drug users are in their youth, in addition to old persons and women. The government is not only taking effective measures against the spread of drugs among people but also making all out efforts to ensure a healthy and sound society, sources said. In this regard, more than 78 centres for the rehabilitation of drugs addicts are functioning in the country.
Two of them are also working under the auspices of ANF - one in Chak Shehzad near the Federal Capital and the other in Quetta. It is said that the most worst form of poppy crop has been cultivating mainly in Afghanistan and then smuggled to Western countries through neighbouring Pakistan, Central Asian countries and Iran.
According to an official, Pakistan Anti Narcotics Force is taking effective measures to control drugs smuggling by seizing heroine, charas and opium. Every year, heroine and other drugs worth million of rupees is burnt by ANF, he added. He said the drug paddlers and other related culprits arrested during raids are put under trial in the courts and given severe punishments.
In Pakistan, the punishment for drug smugglers is upto 14 years imprisonment and some of them are awarded even death penalty. In Saudi Arabia and some other countries, death sentence is given to the drug traffickers. He said some donor countries are helping Pakistan to fight menace of drugs trafficking and to providing medical assistance for rehabilitation of drug users.