ISLAMABAD: Speakers at seminary on Tuesday urged the government to take effective steps to bring awareness and educate public about the harms, hazards and effects of tobacco and illicit drug on human health.

Thousands of people in Pakistan are admitted in the hospitals everyday due to tobacco-related diseases and according to an estimate around 274 die daily and above 100,000 die every year due to smoking or smoking-related causes, they said while addressing a seminar organised by Psychaid, a rehabilitation centre, in connection with World no-Tobacco Day which was observed on Tuesday.

Dr Farman Ali Turi, a senior psychologist and Managing Director Psychaid, speaking on the occasion said that civil society and relevant government departments needed to make joint efforts to raise awareness about hazards of tobaccos smoking as well as use of other drugs in the country. “It is responsibility not only of the government but also every individual of the country to come forward for curbing this menace from the country,” he further said.

He urged for effective tobacco control to save precious lives lost every year in the country to the diseases caused by tobacco use. More than 50 percent of deaths because of lung diseases could be prevented by eradicating smoking, he said.

About the usage of drugs, he said any country with drugs could have different problems, but the negative impact on GDP growth was the same. Human limitations, avoidance, lack of knowledge about problems in national prospective and the strong national and international drug mafia made the drug problem more chronic and severe, he added.

According to a National Survey “Drug use in Pakistan 2013”, he said there were 6.7 million users of any illicit substance and 4.25 million were considered to be drug dependent.

According to him, cannabis is the most commonly used drug, and four million people are using cannabis nationwide while 860,000 people use heroin regularly. In the country, he said 320,000 were opium users and methamphetamine was estimated as 19,000 and around 430,000 people inject drugs.

He pointed out that women were more likely to misuse tranquilizers and sedatives as well as amphetamines. “Around 4.25 million drug users in Pakistan are considered dependent on substances and require a form of structured intervention for treatment and rehabilitation of their drug use disorder,” he said, adding women were less likely to have received treatment than men.

Speaking on the occasion, psychiatrist Dr Mohammad Iqbal, clinical psychologists Dr Anwar Ali, Dr Faryal Amin and Dr Mohammad Rizwan, stated that the government with the help of civil society needed to launch effective anti-tobacco and anti-drugs campaign with a view to save future generation.

They pointed out that there was an increasing trend of tobacco usage in education institutions including schools, colleges and universities and the government needed to issue strict instructions to the education institutions to ensure that the new generation was not exposed to the smoking and usage of other drugs.—PR