Karachi and New York share a common problem that puts them on a global map: drug abuse. “After New York, Karachi is the city with the most drug consumption in the world,” said Muhammad Ali Rauf, managing director at Promise Rehabilitation Centre, Karachi in The News On Sunday.
Back in 2019, it was reported that an enormous quantity of cannabis — 41.95 metric tonnes — was consumed in Karachi annually following the 77.44 metric tons consumed in New York. The numbers have only risen over the years. It’s not only cannabis, but also ‘party or recreational drugs’ such as ecstasy, LSD and methamphetamines that are on the rise.
With a dearth of jobs, dismal future prospects for the youth, bleak laws, and neighborgood smuggling, the widespread drug abuse among the Pakistani youth is an ugly problem for the government. Drug peddlers across Pakistan, and especially Karachi, are an everyday reality.
With 6.7 million drug users, of which 4.25 million are considered to be drug dependent, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has previously claimed that these figures for Pakistan are among the highest for any country in the world.
A profile on a convenience sample of drug users in Karachi conducted by the World Health Organization, Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean also revealed that a majority of respondents cited ‘bad company’, poor employment opportunities and financial strains as their reason for slide into drug abuse.
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Drugs dominating
The fishing neighbourhood of Rehri Goth of the city is one of the badly affected areas. “Procuring drugs here is as easy as getting a bottle of water,” said a local farmer in a Dawn report. Other areas in Karachi where drug abuse is rampant include Sohrab Goth, Malir, Nazimabad and Hub Chowki.
Kamal Shah, a local activist who campaigns against drug abuse, estimates that roughly 150 people have lost their lives over the past few months in Rehri Goth because of self-injecting.
Cocaine, opium and hashish continue to heavily dominate Pakistan’s illegal drug trade, which is believed to generate $2 billion a year.
“All types of drugs including alcohol, heroin, crystal meth, teryak, sleeping pills, ecstasy and cocaine, etc are so readily available today. One can even order them online and get those delivered at home,” Rauf added.
According to the National Initiative against Organized Crime (NIOC), the street value of cocaine is PKR 8,000-20,000 per gram. In the study published by the WHO, it was revealed that Cocaine and crack cocaine were the most commonly used drugs at 19 per cent and 15 per cent respectively, suggesting that this was also a rich man’s drug.
Costing roughly PKR 1,200 to 4,000 per gram, crystal meth/methamphetamine is now also becoming more prevalent among lower- and middle-income groups. About 540 pounds of phedrine, a major chemical required for its production, was intercepted at Karachi port in 2011. The same year, Iranian authorities retrieved 1,170 pounds of ephedrine, which had originated from Pakistan.
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The Afghanistan route
With urbanisation, migration and a significant surge in Karachi’s population, networks of trafficking of hashish from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Afghanistan have deepened this ‘endemic.’
Pakistan’s Anti Narcotics Force has reported that 40 per cent of Afghan Drug Trafficking utilises drug trade routes passing from Pakistan, composed mainly of heroin and charas.
Since most illicit opium poppy cultivation occurs in the south of Afghanistan in the provinces bordering Pakistan, primarily Helmand and Kandahar — drug trafficking is rampant in this region. Furthermore, since the area is dense, porous and inhospitable, there are just not enough border-crossing points or officials commanding the area.
UNODC estimates also suggest that widespread cannabis farming in Afghanistan also contributes greatly to its illicit production and trafficking of cannabis or its resin (hashish).
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Stigma and lack of treatment facilities
According to a survey report by the UNODC, about 75 per cent of the regular opiate users interviewed by them reported a strong sense of desire for treatment. However, availing treatment was a hurdle as they cited either a lack of access to treatment or an inability to afford it.
Dr Uzma Ambareen, the medical director at The Recovery House, has been practising psychiatry in Pakistan since 1998. She says that the approach to treating addiction in Pakistan has evolved in decades. “Most people in Pakistan, and this includes doctors, believe that using or abusing a substance is a choice and it is within your control,” Ambareen explains. “If you’re an addict, they think you’re being indulgent. You’re being bad and you can stop, but you’re choosing not to.”
Pakistan’s former Secretary Narcotics Control, Tariq Khosa has previously admitted that “Drug use in society was ignored due to stigma or lack of empathy by the government and bureaucracy. An ostrich-like approach has resulted in the problem being felt across the urban as well as rural areas.”