Unchecked drugs are a growing menace and their abuse is a growing threat! Specially to the youth...

SHE REACHED TO TOUCH THE PUFFY WHITE CLOUDS WITH GLISTENING EYES, HER SOUL BATHED WITH PLEASURE BLENDED WITH AWE. EYES CAPTURED THE COLORS OF RIBBONS TWIRLING ALL AROUND MAKING HER SKIN TINGLE WITH DELIGHT. SHE WAS DRIFTING IN HEAVEN WITH A HOST OF ANGELS, ALL HAND IN HAND...AND THEN, THEY LET HER FALL...

Three hours later, Alia was found in her bedroom, sprawling on her bed with blood caked around her nose, a hint of smile on her face carrying an expression of pure bliss.

The wondrous smoke that daily rose from the heated aluminum foil had finally proven its worth. Instead of curling her senses and transporting her to the land of ecstasy, it slowly curled around her throat and killed her. Two days later her drug-pusher boyfriend committed suicide.

How many of us keep hearing such gruesome stories? How many just shrug them off, and how many of us are left in a whirlpool of thought?

Once there was a time when such stories left their listeners grim and appalled. Now they are treated as commonly as we treat rape, murder and suicide. It is no longer a sensational story or hot gossip; its just something that happened to somebody. Oh dear, is it my imagination or are we indeed turning into self-centered and unconcerned politicians in the game of life? That too with a live and let die motto?

When is this nation going to absorb the reality of drugs? When are we really going to do something about it? When this menace will finally strike our homes? Is that what we are waiting for?

Drug related problems in our country have always been a hush-hush affair among the cream de la cream owing to their elite social status and among the poor due to the local authorities. This problem has to be accepted, then faced and tackled ... before it tackles us! And oh yes! There are ways of tackling too. One is the real soccer way, the other that some treacherous, tawdry, thuggish religious fanatic tried on a visiting soccer team somewhere...

In Pakistan, 80 % of the drug addicts are the youth. Tensions and stress in life, social and domestic problems, peer pressure and curiosity lure people towards drugs to control themselves and their crumbling surroundings. Little do they realize that first they take the drug, and then the drug takes them and unleashes an un-tamable and dangerous yearning?

Misinformation and lack of facts about drug-abuse combine to make a lethal dose. We all know that drugs are administrated through cigarette, pills, injections, liquefy-evaporate-inhale method etc. So allow me to tell you further what you think you know but do not really know.

You might have sniffed the Snowman's golden and silver markers before using them.* These types are inhalants and they further include nail paint removers, glues, paint thinners etc. The fumes given of are addictive and habitual sniffing can relax the body, numb senses and irritate the lung surface to produce extra mucus.

Sara, a student of fine arts, expressed shock: "I still can't believe it! I just loved that compelling smell and carried my silver marker everywhere in my knapsack. I think I dried out more markers by sniffing then by using on paper." Mmmmmm... so you see, naivety is becoming less of a virtue day by day.

Barbiturates such as Valium, Norgesic, Lexotanil etc are originally prescriptive relaxants and sleeping aids. Misuse and increased dosage lead to slow circulation, reflexes, respiration etc. These are the most misused being over-the-counter drugs. A teenager admits: "After being dumped by my girlfriend, I took Valium to sleep off my misery; self-pity encouraged the sluggish and slurring effects. Three months later my best pal coaxed me to get a life."

Lack of satisfaction after continuous use of drugs, leads to the use of anti-psychotic depressants used for severe pain and surgery. These two are usually starters. After sometimes and exposure, abusers proceed to stronger drugs.

There is no stopping anywhere; can't stop the sun; can't stop fate and can't stop and resist temptations. For all those who soar high on drugs, there is no point in telling yourself that you will quit some day or that you will go no further. Each time is a step further!

First you take one piece then you want the whole cake.
We've heard of narcotics from Harrison Ford, the Daughter of the East, Bruce Willis, Mian Sahib, Tom Cruise and our G.I Joes. Let me give you a closer glimpse. Narcotics result from the exploitation of Mother Nature. Instead of adorning vases, the poppy petals are stripped and seeds used as opium. In other words what was bestowed by the nature as a thing of beauty now symbolizes a cursed death!

These narcotics include morphine, codeine, and the world fame heroin. All these stabilize and soothe nerves and cause calmness to the mind by numbness.

Stimulants are the drugs, which arouse the most curiosity being known for causing excitement, alertness, extreme pleasure and experiencing a high within a matter of seconds. However, the craving to recapture the thrill of high often leads to an overdose, most common with this drug

Amphetamines fall in the simple and popular category being available legally with prescription. Now this is completely a different story!
While most chemists deny selling such drugs without prescription, other admit it plainly. And come to think of it what's stopping them anyway? Authorities? Ethics? Give me a break!

Zahir Khan, an employee at a drug store says: "Not only us but all shops are lenient about the prescription. If people don't get the medicine here, they'll get it at the shop next door."
Another shop owner adds: "We are carefree because the authorities are carefree and anyway, getting a fake or original prescription and any medicine is a matter of money."

Cocaine, nicked coke, is also a stimulant. It's a purer form of this drug that is lethal and is known as crack. This is smokable in joints and usually the first dose ends in cardiac arrest. Another slayer is methylenedi-oxymethamphetamine, better known as ecstasy on the streets. It is a clear form of liquid, which can be diluted in drinks or injected.

Steroids are the most common with athletes as they boost muscle size, kill fatigue and increase tolerance to pain. They result in abnormal enlargement of hands and feet, high blood pressure and kidney failure. Asad, a sportsman since school, couldn't handle the competition at the university level. "A friend of mine introduced me to steroids, we were in the same team. The vomits and aches are too much so, I dropped out. This was four years back; now that friend is hooked to a blood dialysis machine."

Marijuana is a thriving problem! You know it better as pot, weed, grass etc since it is an extract from the Hemp Plant and is available to anybody and everybody. The poverty-stricken class makes full use of this bhang that nature provides in abundance. It is especially popular with students who start with cigarettes and then elevate to grass.


So first comes the slice and then comes the whole cake. The red cherry on the cream cake are the side effects of these drugs, starting from nausea, vomiting, numbness, nose bleeds, body aches and cramps, hair loss, loss of coordination, bad memory, slow reflexes to high blood pressure, weight loss, hallucinations, cancer, insomnia, kidney problems and brain hemorrhage... whoosh! Plus marijuana permanently settles in the host’s body and can only be suppressed. So in a nutshell, there are more lows then a high... I personally feel it like the devil's invitation to dinner!


Besides the acceptance of drugs, drug abusers and drug peddlers in our society are a pending problem. Sometimes, I wonder what is wrong with the adult population, which is considered mature, responsible and level head. Their responses are most baffling; lack of acceptance of the drug issue is the highlight of their attitude and this discourages their children in confiding to their parents out of fear or shame.

Mrs. Zaheer, Zain's mother found drugs in her son's room. "God knows how long I just stood there, then hysteria took over me...all I could think of was, not my Zain, not my son..." Another father claims: "I was overcome by so many emotions that I slapped my daughter...alls fine now but I wish I had acted more wisely."

Nida is among those whom fate forgot to smile at the hour of need. Her brother Ali committed suicide under the influence of LSD (Lysergic acid diethyl amide). "I think he couldn't pay for the drugs he was using, moving with an older and faster crowd, he must be afraid of them. I wish he had confided in me."

The drug scene in Pakistan, at its base, is actually a classic business story of the emergence of the drug elite in the country. Drug production and drug trafficking is a major business all over the globe. The Los Angeles Times Syndicate ran an article claiming that "Pills cost so much that Americans are now buying them for investment rather than curing an ailment."

Drugs being lucrative need no advertisement, if you come once, you come again and then you keep coming...in other words, you're hooked!
The individuals and cartels operating this lethal trade in Pakistan are influential and ruthless. Asset accumulation has enabled the drug barons to operate at a larger scale after the crackdown. Intensive crop eradication resulted into larger crops and misguidance to the public; destruction of processing labs has lead to mobile ones and bigger laboratories in remote areas.

From the drug barons to street pushers, our villain in the horror story just profits, looming in the background, ready to ounce! And the worst blow yet is that it is the common public that makes these merchants of destruction strong and powerful by supplying a vast market. A survey shows that the share of Pakistani drug cartels in the global drug trade is around about $ 20 billion.

It should be demanded of the government to take immediate steps to stem this flux that threatens to extirpate us. We need quick actions, not plans and words, as the time is claiming more drug abusers and death is gnawing their bones. The authorities must quit slashing the plant, should dig deep and strike at the roots of this evil. The financial investigation will single handedly strip these death merchants of profits and assets. So strip away and reveal and have no fear... unless there is something to be feared. A saying goes, "There is nothing to fear but fear itself."

We should keep a vigil on our surrounding and friends. Signs like major mood swing, aggression, sluggishness and withdrawal from people and denial of any problems at all could be indicative of drug addiction. The victims should be extended immediate help on professional level.

There are detoxification centers that deal at psychological and medical level. Methadone with medical care is used to replace the addictive drug and reduce its side effects and cut down withdrawal symptoms.
And yeah! Don't forget what Archie and the gang taught us in comic books, "Say no to Drugs!" And you'd better or else soon you'll be on that carrot diet asking... "Say... What’s up doc?"

*The Snowman markers clearly warns with inscription on the marker that "vapors are harmful" and should be used in a "well-ventilated area".