Drug-testing proposal

THERE is no shortage in Pakistan of attempts to address grave issues through superficially thought-out ideas or rhetoric. Take the abuse or recreational use of drugs. On Thursday, the IGP Islamabad, Sultan Azam Temuri, stated at a seminar that the capital police, in collaboration with teachers, would conduct drug tests on students suspected of using narcotic substances; he pointed out that many parents come to know of such practices only after their children are already addicted to drugs. This is not the first time such a suggestion has been floated. Towards the end of January, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah announced that it would be made mandatory for students to undergo drug-detection tests.

What became of the latter proposal is as yet unknown. But now that a similar announcement has been made in the capital, it is necessary to point out the issues that need to be disentangled. There is no doubt that drug abuse is a deeply serious matter and needs to be addressed at all levels of society and across age groups. However, before any policy can be chalked out, research is needed to determine the extent of the problem. Even without making people undergo tests, at the very least data can be collected through rehabilitation centres and medical records of suspected or confirmed users. Secondly, there is a pressing need to curtail the manufacture of non-medicinal drugs in the country — including by clamping down on the availability of ingredients (such as ephedrine) — and cross-border smuggling. UNODC estimates, for example, that Pakistan is the transit and destination country for about 40pc of the opiates produced in Afghanistan. Further, the supply chain of dealers has to be broken. Before violating individual privacy by subjecting students to drug-testing, which is not the answer to ending drug abuse, the state has to look into its own failings regarding the ready availability of dangerous substances, and seek to block the latter’s access.