ABDULLAH MUGHAL

LAHORE: Consumption of hard and soft drugs is increasing at an alarming pace in the provincial metropolis as addicts are consuming various drugs worth over Rs 40 million each day, claimed a consultant of anti-drugs and narcotics, Syed Zulfiqar Hussain, who runs a non-profit organisation Youth Council for Anti Narcotics, during an exclusive interview with Business Recorder on Friday.

Explaining about hard and soft drugs, he said hard drugs include ice crystal, heroin, cocaine, hashish, alcohol, barbiturates, amphetamines, and nicotine, while soft drugs include paan, cigarette, gutka, supari, tobacco, niswar and others.

He said soft drugs are less inhibiting than hard drugs and can be defined as causing psychological, but not physical addiction. However, hard drugs can be defined as being both physically and psychologically addictive, while also posing serious risks to users.

"These drugs can easily be overdosed which can also cause significant harm to users' health, sometimes even leading to death," he explained.

"As per United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Pakistan has 6.7 million drug users. But it does not explain how many people are consuming soft drugs," he claimed.

According to him, over 400,000 people are using drugs in Lahore. Of them, a large number of users are students of schools, colleges and universities, he said.

"People are using a newly-introduced drug in the market namely ice-crystal which is smuggled to Pakistan in packets of 50 grams or less. After hashish and heroin, ice crystal is becoming popular amongst the youth, especially belonging to the elite class, and its each dose costs Rs 1500," he mentioned.

He claimed that dead bodies which are brought to mortuaries, particularly the unidentified ones, are mostly of those addicts who inject drugs to their bodies.

Most of the addicts are found near police stations including Tibbi City, Lari Adda, Shafiqabad, Gawalmandi and Qilla Gujjar Singh, Ghari Shau, Old city, Shahdra, Rachna Town, Immia Colony, China Scheme, Baghbanpura, Nashtar Town and Shadbagh, he said.