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More Afghan Opium¹ May Mean More Pakistani Addicts³

In Pakistan, the number of people addicted⁴ to heroin⁵ and other opiates, like these in Karachi, are on the rise.

Mohammad Qurban has been an addict² for 20 years. This is his second time in rehab. There are plenty of drugs here, he said, from marijuana to heroin. He said addicts come from all sectors⁶ of society.

"There is no distinction. A rich man parks his car behind and then comes to the footpath⁷ asking for a needle. They pay for the drugs and have it injected," he said. "The rich get their drugs from the poor. The person who gets the drug, sells the drug and uses the drug are the boys of the footpath."

The trail of drugs and addiction⁸ passes through the Pakistani cities of Peshawar in the northwest and Quetta in the southwest.

Estimates of drug users in Pakistan vary from 600,000 to nine million. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the actual number is likely somewhere in between, with a significant increase in the supply and use of opiates, including heroin, in the past five years.

Dr. Saleem Azam, who heads a rehabilitation⁹ center in Karachi, said drugs are easily available.

"These are available like peanuts; you are sitting in your office, you are sitting in your bedroom, you are sitting in your living room, you can call a person and he will drop the drug at your doorstep," said Azam.

The number of heroin and opiate users like Qurban are expected to increase when international combat forces leave Afghanistan in 2014 and opium production and smuggling¹⁰ are less controlled.

Fateh Muhammad Burfat, chairman of Karachi University's criminology department, says more heroin and opiates mean more crime.

"This drug use is also related with the arms. Illegal arms and drugs go together. In Pakistan, for example, heroin and Kalashnikovs [AK-47 rifles] usually go together," Burfat said.

Ultimately, the extent of Pakistan's drug problem will be determined¹¹ by what happens next door in Afghanistan. The United Nations reported earlier this month that the amount of Afghan farmland devoted¹² to opium poppies has increased by nearly 20 percent this year.