NUMS conference on damaging impact of drug use on Saturday

Rawalpindi : National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS) will be hosting one-day international conference on June 11, for creating awareness about damaging impact of drug use and addiction, already affecting 4 million youth in the country and help look for ways and means to tackle diverse issues emerging out of Substance Use Disorders(SUD).

The international moot will be a joint venture of NUMS and Phoenix Foundation for Research & Development (PFRD).

Its main focus would be on abuse of the substance(drugs) its prevention and suggest steps for curbing the spread of drug addiction in the light of proposals coming from both national and international scholars participating in the conference.

Commenting on the purpose of the conference NUMS’s Pro Vice Chancellor Academics Maj Gen (r) Saleem Ahmad Khan, HI(M), said it would help in identifying loopholes in the educational institutions where our vulnerable youth have fallen prey to drug addiction which was very much underreported.

This conference will help to work out a strategy to detect drug addiction and will also provide guidelines for the policy makers to address it.

NUMS has always been endeavouring to highlight the national issues, especially those affecting the young students, he added.

‘We are trying to strategize our policy for prevention of drug abuse, especially in our educational institutions.

Dr Zakia Bano Associate Prof of NUMS’s Psychology Department while giving details of the conference said, the experts hailing from different leading universities and psychology institutes from across the country and abroad, who have done research in various aspects of Substance Use Disorders (SUD), will speak on the occasion.

All the international speakers who will virtually participate in the conference includes, Dr. Kevin P. Mulvey, PhD Executive Director, International Consortium of Universities for Drug Demand education (ICUDDR), Dr. Kmran Niaz Chief Epidemiologist, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Vienna, Austria and Dr. Prapapun Chucharoen, Director Neuroscience Mahidol University Thailand.