Content area
Full text
Abstract
The use of narcotic substances and drug addiction are growing at alarming levels in Pakistan. The harsh anti-narcotics laws, which are against the spirit of the Sharia, have failed to contain this mushrooming growth and have instead added to the suffering of drug addicts. Based on the qualitative research carried out in district Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), this paper provides for the ineffectiveness of these laws and highlights the challenges in their implementation. The government's lack of interest to address this issue has also been observed through the absence of medical treatment and rehabilitation facilities for drug addicts. It is suggested that the existing laws should be reformed in favour of addicts and harm reduction programmes should be introduced in the wider interest of the society.
Keywords: Pakistan, use of drugs, addiction, KPK, Islamic law
1.Drug Use and Addiction in Pakistan
The use of controlled drugs and other narcotic substances and drug addiction are constantly growing problems in Pakistan.1 Despite harsh anti-narcotics laws, the country has witnessed an enormous growth in the number of drug addicts in the last three decades, and today Pakistan stands as one of the most drugaffected countries in the world.2 In the last two decades, injection of cheap drug concoctions and the use of various chemicals with liquor, , has become common which on various occasions led to collective deaths. 3 In one reported incident in March 2016, more than 50 people died after consuming spurious liquor in Sindh.4 The use of Methamphetamine "orice' has become very popular in the last few years, which results in risky, violent and hostile behaviour among the users.5 The last decade has witnessed an increasing trend in the spread of hepatitis B, C and HIV/AIDS amongst addicts all over the country due to used syringes and needles.6 Such an egregious situation of the problem demands a holitistc intervention on part of the government and thus needs to studied critically.
2.Root cause of the drug use in Pakistan
It is generally believed that opium and marijuana were traditionally used as narcotics in Afghanistan7 and by extension in the tribal areas of Pakistan, but drug addiction was never a problem in Pakistan until early 1980s.8 The mass-scale introduction of drugs into the Pakistani society...