Islamabad: Schools, colleges and universities in the federal capital are fast turning into drug peddlers’ favourite haunts, as they can find a large number of young customers here.
Even well-known private schools — known for their high fees and standards of education — are not out of the drug dealers’ range, as they offer easy access to boys and girls of elite families.
According to the Islamabad police record, in 2018 alone, more than 6,000 cases of drugs use in schools, colleges and universities were reported. The police, acting on the complaints of either the schools’ administration or parents, arrested more than 70 drug peddlers.
The issue of drug addiction is becoming a serious one for the administration of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), as well as the newly elected government of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. According to a report presented before the Senate’s Standing Committee in September this year, 53 per cent of private school students are addicted to drugs, or at least smoked cigarettes off and on.
The report, prepared by the non-governmental organisation South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (Sassi), stated that 44 to 53 per cent students of large private schools in the federal capital were addicted to various kinds of drugs. The addicts are either provided intoxicants by their peers or teachers, which greatly shocked the committee members.
‘Ice’ on the rise
According to Sassi Director General Dr Maria Sultan, 44- to 53 per cent of students aged between 12 and 19 years in private schools are taking either artificial or hard drugs. Many are addicted to heroin.
Just last week, the police arrested two students of Quaid-i-Azama University for allegedly supplying drugs at the campus in the capital.
The suspects, named Mohammad Tayab and Adnan Wazir, were apprehended during a police raid.
While talking to Gulf News here on Thursday, a senior police official of Secretariat Police Islamabad said that besides local elements, foreign students and nationals are also involved in supplying drugs to students. They take advantage of their foreign identity and soon make friends with the local students, and then supply drugs to them, he said. “In the beginning, young students take these drugs out of pure curiosity, and later become addicted to them,” he said.
He said some common drugs being used in schools and colleges include opium, cocaine, marijuana and hashish, but a new kind of drug — crystal meth or ‘ice’ — is rising in popularity. Ice is considered one of the most harmful drugs, damaging the nervous system.
According to the police, youths are addicted to this new menace mostly in Lahore and Islamabad, and it is fast replacing cocaine in popularity. An expensive drug, 500 grams of pure crystal meth is being sold for Rs5,000 (Dh136) to Rs10,000.
The source said that crystal meth is smuggled in large quantities from Afghanistan, Iran and China. Pakistani youngsters who go to study in China and return are more prone to crystal meth addiction.
