The challenge of drug addiction

Through a Business Recorder op-ed I was shocked to learn that in 2006, Pakistan had 4.5 million drug addicts and the number has now reached nearly 9 million. Drug dealers and addicts are also involved in smuggling and prostitution. Drug trafficking has resulted in "Organised Crime" which is different from the normal criminal activities, as it involves corruption, money laundering and criminalization of the political and legal institutions. Drug money in Pakistan is used to bribe the entire administrative, political and legal institutions, from the local police to magistrates. That a growing number of people, particularly the youth, are becoming drug addicts is a highly disturbing development. India's Punjab, for example, has been suffering immensely on account of a very high incidence of drug addiction. The then rulers of India's Punjab, the Badals of Akali Dal, had been finding it extremely difficult to attract new investments to their province because reports (some of which were exaggerated though) about the growing incidence of drug addiction in Punjab had marred the image of this Indian state. The authorities in Pakistan must therefore take all the required steps to deal with this scourge successfully.