Pakistan's Drug Problem, Al Jazeera, 12 January 2010

EXCERPT: "It estimated there are half a million people who inject heroin in Pakistan, and maybe five million drug users in total. . . Iftikhar earned enough as a tailor to finance his habit, and when money ran short, he sold possessions like his video camera. 'After the high had worn off, I would wake up and realise what I'd done, but it didn't stop me,' he said. Until one day on the streets, he was approached by an outreach worker from the country's biggest rehabilitation programme, Nai Zindagi, or New Life. And now in the warmth of the late winter sun, in the hills around Barakoh, he is preparing the ground for his vegetables. . . The farm programme where he works is a key plank in Nai Zindagi's operation. Financed by their own fund raising efforts, some state backing and the support of foreign governments like the Dutch, every day it helps around 22,000 addicts across Pakistan. It gives clean needles to addicts to stop the spread of HIV, it gives advice on health issues, treats wounds and abscesses, and gives addits the chance of getting clean. . . 'Terrorism is a different thing, this is an epidemic. If we do not respond to increased drug use in the country, and now people being infected with HIV, a lot of people are going to be angry about the fact that they have a disease they were not informed about. A lot of people are going to be disillusioned with life and you might have a group of people who you could recruit for terrorism,' he said. The authorities say Pakistan has the highest number of drug users in the world."

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Related articles:
Pakistan madrassa mixes drugs rehab and fighter training, BBC News, 3 December 2009
, The China Post, 24 August 2009
Punjab's drug haul shows it's a safe transit point, Thaindian, 24 February 2009
"Pakistan on drug war's frontline", Daily Times, 2 March 2006

Related reports:
[entry on Pakistan on page 460], United States Department of State // Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, March 2009

Related posts:
Narco-jihad: Drug trafficking and security in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 8 January 2010