KPK has highest number of drug users

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has the highest number of drug users in the country as 10.9 per cent of its residents have used an illicit substance during the past year, according to a report. The report titled ‘Drug use in Pakistan-2013’ was prepared by United Nations Office on Drug and Crimes (UNODC) and Ministry of Interior and Narcotics Control. Launched at a ceremony here on Tuesday, the report said that approximately six per cent population of the country or 6.7 million people used any controlled substance including misuse of prescription drugs in the last year. Sharing the key findings of the report, Mohammad Shahid said that age of the majority of the drug users was between 25 and 39 years. He said that 860,000 people in the country used heroin regularly and 320,000 were opium users while 1.06 million people, aged between 15 to 64 years, were using opiates. “Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is on the route of the drug pushers, so easy availability is one major cause of the high prevalence of the drug use,” Mr Shahid said. Women were also using hashish, he said, adding that 45,000 women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were using drugs and painkillers. He said that student hotels all over the country were becoming hubs of drug abuse. “Students, both male and female, are using drugs,” Mr Shahid said. The report said that 1.6 million people in the province used illicit substances in the past year whereas 47,000 people were injecting drugs. According to the survey, cannabis is the most commonly used drug.