DRUG ADDICTS NUMBER 4 MILLION IN OPIUM-FREE PAKISTAN

ISLAMABAD -- Despite being declared an opium poppy-free country two years
ago, Pakistan has four million drug addicts, the country's Anti-Narcotics
Force (ANF) reported.

The number of opium users is increasing by 7 percent per year, a survey by
the agency published on the occasion of the United Nation's-sponsored,
World Anti-Drug Day found, DPA reported.

Drug abuse poses a serious threat to the socioeconomic development and
progress of the Islamic nation, the survey said, pointing out that nearly
60 percent of drug addicts were classified as literate, and a similar
percentage employed.

Fifty-two percent of the four million addicts live in urban centers, and 72
percent were aged between 26 and 35 years.

Each drug abuser was estimated to be spending 1,259 rupees (20 dollars) on
the addiction every month.

The Pakistani government has prepared a drug reduction strategy involving
volunteer groups and allocated more than 1 billion rupees, or nearly 18
million dollars, according to the ANF report.

Afghan drug producers and traffickers -- blamed for the drug problem in
Pakistan - turned into powerful barons after they helped finance the
U.S.-backed jihad (holy war) against the Soviet occupation of the Muslim
country in the 1980s.

Ikarmul Haq, a lawyer studying the global drug economy wrote in the
newspaper * Dawn , "Afghan freedom fighters became the recipients of the
same sort of high-powered CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) largesse and
logistical support as provided to Meo (Hmong) and Shan tribes in the hills
of the golden triangle in the 1960s." Haq said the share of Pakistani drug
cartels, in the annual total world drug trade of 400 billion dollars,
totals about 30 billion dollars.