Drugs and darkness

Narcotics are destroying our society and youth. Around 685 deaths are occurring every day across the world because of drug usage or overdose. This number is higher than the number of deaths resulting from terrorism. The world’s drug economy is worth $435 billion and around $225 billion is needed for the treatment of drug addicts. The most commonly available drugs in Pakistan are hashish, followed by heroin, opium and cocaine, which are easily smuggled, from Afghanistan right under the noses of concerned border forces. In addition, the easy availability of drugs on streets, universities and colleges is an absolute failure on part of the police and the excise department. The findings of the data show that since 2016, at least 9,885kgs of heroin, 1,440kgs of hashish and 33kgs of opium were seized in special raids conducted on education institutions.

The Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997 is a special law which was enacted mainly for awarding deterrent punishments to the persons involved in the trade of narcotics in any manner. However, unfortunately, this has become the easiest law to be misused by the hands of law-enforcement agencies, particularly by the police. Lodging of false and fabricated FIRs against innocent citizens, defective investigations, false testimony of police officials and unreliable police witnesses have certainly made the law less important in the eyes of general public as well as the courts. It is important that the malicious acts of the police and negligence in the investigation of the genuine cases, must not be brushed aside. It is incumbent upon the senior police officials to conduct in-depth inquiries against the investigation officers and the complainant of the cases register under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act 1997, in which the accused persons are ultimately acquitted by the courts and the FIRs/cases are subsequently quashed.

Arsalan Raja (Karachi)