According to an NGO report, Shehryar Afridi, the Interior State Minister, stated that “in the capital, 75 percent of female students and 45 percent of male students are hooked on narcotics, particularly crack cocaine, often known as ice.” Students’ usage of drugs at educational institutions has been augmented. In the year 2019, a survey conducted by Quaid-e-Azam University with the collaboration of the Higher Education Commission polled 4947 students from schools, colleges, and universities in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, and Peshawar. According to the survey, “2% of students in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, and Peshawar are regular drug users in educational institutions. “By virtue of the convenient availability of drugs in the academic system, an increasing number of students in Pakistan’s state universities have fallen prey to the perils of drugs. Students have turned to drugs as a result of exorbitant expectations from professors and family, the stress environment of intensive work, and an erroneous peer group. “Why did I stop using drugs, and is it purely my responsibility to avoid them? How do I deal with academic pressure, and what occurred when I knew where to get it easily?” Sara, a university student, said. When PPP (Public-Private Partnership) MNA presented the Act 2018, MNA “points to discouraging excessive drug use among students and reinforces institutions’ drug prevention roles.” Nevertheless, no evidence has been discovered to support this assertion. Drug misuse among students in educational institutions is connected to a variety of concerns, including terrorism, suicide, and a variety of crimes, their future is jeopardized, and this is an obstacle not just for students, but also for Pakistan’s prospective. The government should adopt stringent laws on the prevention of drug use among students. Dr. Muhammad Ali, vice chancellor of Quaid-e-Azam University, said, “Students must report occurrences of any action associated with drug consumption” and “the young must learn to say no if they are given drugs.”
Areeba Iqbal
Karachi
