Under a flyover on the bank of a drain in Hayatabad, Peshawar, teenaged Ali Daud lies motionless among a group of addicts. His sunken green eyes, dishevelled hair and slender frame confirm that the boy is already a shadow of himself. He occasionally raises his head and squints at passers-by and the traffic on the overhead bridge. After a while, he drags himself up and totters to a nearby lane to get hold of more drugs.

But contrary to what many might believe, the youngsters huddled under the bridge are not addicted to heroin or hashish. Their addiction is crystal meth, commonly known as ‘ice’. In local jargon, it is known as ‘sheesha.’

“People say it makes you cool and hyperactive,” says Sajjad Gul, a 20-year-old ice addict. “Some say it makes you a ‘sex god’.”

Gul walks up to the Karkhano Market everyday to score his stash from another young man his age. “The transfer is discreet,” he says. “Then I rush back to join my drug buddies [under the bridge]. No one else comes here. Ice puts you in a dreamland. I have used heroin too but ice is a very different sensation.”

Forget heroin or hashish, crystal meth is the new fad among youngsters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ... and it is rising sharply

Contrary to popular perception, however, crystal meth addiction is not merely a phenomenon of the poor. In fact, the stories of Ali Daud and Sajjad Gul are no different from hundreds of young students staying in hostels on campuses of private and public sector educational institutions. Some even claim that it is more a phenomenon of the elite — since imported ice costs a lot more than other drugs.

And the trend of consuming crystal meth is on the sharp rise. Doctors and professionals associated with counter-drug abuse measures claim that over the past six months, there has been a 20 percent increase in the number of addicts using crystal meth. The addiction is also common among school-going teens while visitors to small restaurants and indoor sports clubs are no exception either. Meanwhile, the absence of a proper drugs control policy to check and curb the peddling of crystal meth has meant that it has fast become the drug of choice for those suffering depression, mental agony, or even erectile dysfunction.

“The situation is horrible,” says Dr Parveen Azam Khan, director of the Dost Welfare Foundation (DWF), a non-profit organisation in Peshawar that has been working against drug abuse since 1992. The DWF claims to have thus far rehabilitated around 40,000 drug addicts.

“We registered more than 200 young crystal meth users in the last six months but the number of addicts of a relatively new drug [crystal meth] is increasing rapidly,” she says. “There are six DWF rehabilitation centres in Peshawar — two are for children and four for adults — with over 700 beds. About 20 percent of the patients are ice addicts.”

“The dangerous side of this injectable drug is that it is closely linked with HIV/Aids and hepatitis,” says the doctor. “It destroys the entire family fabric and the community at large. No girl or woman has been registered at our facility till now but it cannot be ruled out that women too have become ice users.”

Ghulam Ali, a student of a local college in Peshawar and an ice user, explains that ice is easily available across Peshawar and peddlers tend to sell it in small quantities. “The price of one gram of locally-made meth may run between 1,500 to 2,000 rupees. One gram of import-quality, Grade-A meth costs between 5,000 and 6,000 rupees,” he says.

While the import-quality drug is widely popular among youngsters from privileged backgrounds, the locally-made one is for those who come from humble backgrounds. Peshawar’s ice peddlers typically roam the localities of Hayatabad, Gulbahar, Hashtnagri, Warsak Road, University Road, and Nishtarabad. Those in Swat, Mardan, Charsadda and Nowshehra are shrewd enough to use teenaged drug dealers to peddle.

“Crystal meth is generally smoked, inhaled or injected with a needle and is one of the strongest stimulants creating hyperactivity and ecstasy,” explains DWF’s Dr Javed. “It lowers appetite and the feeling of being hyperactive remains from six to eight hours, and can even extend up to 20 hours.” He adds that several toxic chemicals are used in its preparation, including acetone, lithium, toluene, hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide and sulphuric acid but ephedrine is the main ingredient.

“The dangerous side of this injectable drug is that it is closely linked with HIV/Aids and hepatitis,” says the doctor. “It destroys the entire family fabric and the community at large. No girl or woman has been registered at our facility till now but it cannot be ruled out that women too have become ice users.”

The DWF rehab process is a three-stage one: detoxication for 15 days, followed by 90 days of rehabilitation and, finally, follow-up checks. Two years ago, the DWF in collaboration with the provincial government managed to construct a 450-bed rehabilitation centre on Warsak Road in Peshawar.

But the project has now run into some obstacles. According to a memorandum of understanding signed back then, the KP government was to grant 150 million rupees for rehabilitating 40,000 drug addicts. “Out of this grant, 90 million rupees have already been spent and around 6,000 patients have been treated,” says Dr Parveen Azam Khan. “But if the rest of the money is not granted soon [and treatment gets interrupted], rehabilitated patients could easily relapse,” she cautions.

“Since ice has become the first-choice drug among youngsters, it creates several psychotic problems,” argues Shah Aurangzeb, a psychotherapist at DWF. “Drug addiction is not curable, it is only manageable. The actual number of ice addicts may be higher than the number of registered patients.”

Meanwhile, Muhammad Anwar, director general of the KP Excise and Taxation Department, claims that a special committee has been constituted by the provincial cabinet. This committee will take into confidence all stakeholders to evolve a comprehensive review of the proposed changes in the Anti-Drugs Act, 1979. He said that his department would need around 700, specially-trained police force to contain drug trafficking including that of ice. “Our force has already been working on abuse of drugs in the province. We have launched operations to trace out drug-peddlers in the city. The proposed draft will be presented to the provincial assembly for debate and passage. An effective anti-drug law is a just a matter of two weeks,” assures Anwar.

Published in Dawn, EOS, April 2nd, 2017