Source: DAWN (Pakistan)
Copyright: 1998 The DAWN Group of Newspapers
Pubdate: Sat, 07 Nov 1998 - 17 Rajab 1419
Contact:  
Website: http://dawn.com
Author: Nizamuddin Siddiqui 
Note: DAWN is Pakistan's most widely circulated English language newspaper

KARACHI: ADDICTION RISING AMONG GIRL STUDENTS, SAY PROFESSORS

KARACHI, Nov 6: Rehana Anees, a professor at a women's college of District
East, said on Friday that drug addiction among girls was rising fast.

She said a few years ago she and her colleagues at the women's colleges
didn't come across cases of drug addiction as often as they did today.
"There is no doubt that drug addiction among girls is spreading rapidly,"
she said.

She said the real figure for drug addiction among women was far greater
than the government's figure for them. She pointed out that according to
the government out of a hundred drug addicts about three were women.

She said she worked as a volunteer for a drug rehabilitation centre. The
studies carried out there showed that the rate of drug addiction among
females was about 7 per cent, she said. "The rate of drug addiction among
girl students is also not understood fully and hence underestimated."

Answering a question put by Dawn, Prof Anees said: "We have conducted a few
short studies which showed that of the total drug addicts 9 per cent were
students."

She also said that most of the female drug addicts came from broken
families. "In most of the cases that we came across, the families involved
did not have a meeting even once each day."

The families in question also didn't know about the whereabouts of the
friends and peer groups of the children. Overprotection of children by the
mothers was also one of the major causes of drug addiction, said Prof Anees.

"In families where people meet one another over a meal there is not going
to be much problems. In such families the fathers can keep an eye on the
children and notice changes in them if and when they occur," she said. She
added that teenagers usually manage to "fool" their mothers.

She also said that drug addiction was rising in families of the upper
class. Here boredom, coupled with societal pressures, forces some of the
teenagers and grownups to turn to drugs, she claimed.

Prof Anees, who runs a drug awareness programme herself, said heroin was
the most common drug in use. Cannabis was the other drug in vogue.
Tranquillisers were also in frequent use, she said. Notable among them were
diazepam and Valium, according to her.

Answering a question, Prof Anees said people get hooked to drugs gradually.
"The first step in a person's journey towards drug addiction is usually
smoking. The second step is taken when the person is introduced to 'filled'
cigarettes by someone. The process is completed when the person starts
craving for the 'filled' cigarettes," she said.

Rehana Anees, a professor of home economics, claimed that drug addiction in
general had penetrated all sections of society. She said our upper and
lower classes had been hit particularly badly by it. Even police and
security agencies were not spared by the menace, she said. 
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Checked-by: Richard Lake