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Drug addiction alarming

Addicts contribute to rise ofcrimes, speakers tell ^tar-American Alumni Association seminar

Staff Correspondent
About half of the five million drug addicts in the country are involved in crimes, said leading anti drug-abuse campaigner Prof Arup R a t a n Choudhury yesterday.
Bangladesh stands eighth among the world's top 10 countries of drug abuse, he said at a discussion, adding that 98 percent of the addicts are smokers.
American Alumni Association (AAA) jointly with The Daily Star
organised the discussion on narcotics in youths at The Daily Star Centre.
Curiosity, peer pressure, parental indifference, easy availability, absence of social and moral values, unemployment, frustration and craving for artificial euphoria are the reasons that gradually lead youths and adolescents to addiction to smoking and drugs, said the professor, founder president of anti-smoking campaign Manas.
Even though the government estimates the number of drug addicts to be
50 lakh, non-government organisations claim the figure to be 70 lakh, he said.
Addiction with its all-pervading impact on human body makes addicts emotionally and physically dependent and they become violent just to get the drugs, he said.
Smoking is the gateway to drug addiction and nicotine in tobacco is equally harmful as drugs like marijuana, heroin, Phensidyle and yaba, he said.
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"Yaba is the most dangerous drug ever produced and poses immense threat to Bangladeshi youths," said Prof Arup, adding, "Bangladesh is used as a transit for international drug smuggling in India, Myanmar, Afghanistan,Thailand, Nepal and Pakistan."
Two lakh bottles of Phensidyle enter Bangladesh every day while Tk 220 crore is spent on them annually, he said, adding that consumption of Phensidyle increased 10 times in the last five years.
Parents must play the lead role and educate their children on the dangers of drug abuse, maintain friendly relation with them and keep a close watch on the people their children associate with, said Gazi Nurun Nahar Sultana, principal scientist at the Centre for Advanced
Research in Sciences of Dhaka University.
Salehuddin Ahmed, managing editor ofThe Daily Star, said it was high time to collectively fight drug addiction to save the country's youths.
Moushumi Shabnam, a senior lecturer of cultural anthropology at North South University, who moderated the discussion, said drugs have a controlling influence in addicts in the long run and the addicts hardly ever win over their addiction.
Brother Ronald Drahozal, director of drugaddicts rehabilitation centre Apon, Ejaj Ahmad, president of Bangladesh Youth Leadership Centre, Tahsin Aman and Arefeen Syed, president and secretary of AAA, spoke among othe