By IRNA,
Islamabad : Pakistan has prepared a Master Plan for Drug Abuse Control, envisaging a three billion rupee program for drug activities reduction in country, a senior anti-narcotics official said Wednesday.
The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) official said at a ceremony in Islamabad to launch the 2008 World Drug Report of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime that the ANF last year seized 15,355 kilograms of Opium, 13,865 kilos of heroin and morphine and 14,928 kilograms of Hashish.
He added that there are currently around 628,000 drug addicts in Pakistan, 77 percent of whom are heroin users.
An alarming trend is that the estimated number of injecting drug users in Pakistan has doubled since the year 2000.
The highest prevalence of opium usage is in southwestern Baluchistan Province, followed by the northwest frontier province, central Punjab and southern Sindh provinces.
Launching the World Drug Report, a UN official said the total area under opium cultivation globally rose to 235,700 hectares last year, 17% higher compared to 2006.
This was almost entirely due to the 17% expansion of cultivation in Afghanistan where the areas under opium cultivation is 193,000 hectares.
Afghanistan alone accounted for over 92% of global opium production last year.
He said that approximately 208 million people — or 4.9% of the world’s population — aged 15 to 64 have used drugs at least once last year.
Pakistan’s Secretary Narcotics Control Division K.B. Rind said that all nations of the world have to cooperate regionally and internationally to eradicate the menace of drugs for ever.
He added that Balochistan has been turned into a poppy free province due to effective coordinated efforts of the government and international agencies’ assistance, and cooperation on the part of all segments of the population.