Former Inspector General Police Punjab and Project Director Drug Free City, Altaf Qamar has said that over 9m Pakistanis are drug addicts among them 2 to 2.5 million are between the age of 15 to 25 years and 200,000 are women. Around 60 percent drug addicts are literate and 40 percent are illiterate while annually 500,000 are becoming addict to various types of drugs.
He was addressing a seminar organised by the Department of Applied Psychology in collaboration with Anti-Narcotic Force at Undergraduate Study Centre on Wednesday. Professor Dr Rkhsana Kausar, faculty members and a large number of students attended the seminar. Qamar said all the substances including cigarette, alcohol, hashish, heroin, Gutka and Sheesa were injurious to health and caused high blood pressure, heart diseases, mouth and throat cancer.
He said drug addicts also commit social crimes. Professor Dr Kausar said that drug abuse also known as substance abuse referred to the excessive and harmful use of psychoactive substances, including alcohol and illicit drugs. She said use of psychoactive substance could lead to a cluster of behavioral, cognitive and physiological phenomena's that developed after repeated substance use.