Drug addiction affects brain system in our body. The habit affects feelings, decision-making, learning, and memory.
But it can also cause other health problems as cancer, heart disease, liver problems, mental disorder, and many infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and tuberculosis.
Drug abuse might cause mental disorder. More than many of those who are addicted to drugs have also had some form of mental illness; either at the same time as their addiction or at some other point in their lives.
Pakistan has millions of drug-users. More than 10 million of these are addicts, amongst the highest number for any country in the world. Abuse of tobacco smoking and heroin is rife in the country and the drugs are easy to get. Most of the drugs come from Afghanistan, the country that is responsible for supply of at least 75 percent of the world’s heroin.
According to world anti-drug calculates, Pakistanis aged between 14 and 60 smoking regularly. It is also estimated that up to 44 tons of processed heroin are consumed annually in Pakistan. In Pakistan, the total number of drug addicts as per a UN report, is 7.6 million, where are 80 percent male while the rest are female.
The number of these addicts is increasing at the rate of 50,000 per year, making Pakistan one of the most drug-affected countries in the world. Drug usage is increasing day by day. In Pakistan, more than 100,000 people are addicted to drugs.
If we calculate, per day basic 177 million cigarettes are consumed. According to the Pakistan Demographic Health Survey, 46 percent men and 5.7 percent women smoke tobacco. The habit is mostly found in the youth of Pakistan and is thought to be responsible for various health problems and deaths in the country. Smoking kills thousands of Pakistani people every year. It causes lung cancer, mouth cancer and many other diseases. Pakistan has the highest consumption of tobacco in Asia.
Global production of opium is now some 80 percent less than at the beginning of the 20th century, prior to the introduction of an international drug control system. Though considerable progress has been recorded, there is no room for complacency.
Drug use remains at an unacceptable level and continues to bring misery to mankind. It also finances criminal and, to some extent, terrorist activities. Too many young people across the globe still die every year because of drugs, either as a direct result of drug abuse, or indirectly from exposure to infectious diseases, primarily HIV, transmitted by contaminated injection paraphernalia.
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