Drugs still aplenty despite drive across Bangladesh

Illegal drugs are still available in almost all places of the country as a huge quantity of the contraband items are being seized in countrywide anti-drug drives and suspected drug peddlers are being killed and arrested almost every day.
Academics as well as rights activists suggest that the government must take initiatives to address the demand side otherwise the situation will not improve.
The latest death of suspected drug peddler was reported on Thursday in Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar where two unidentified ‘peddlers’ were killed in a ‘gunfight’ with Rapid Action Battalion who also seized 50,000 Yaba tablets from the spot. 
Against the backdrop of widespread use of drugs and at the direction of prime minister Sheikh Hasina, RAB began their nationwide anti-drug drive on May 4 and the police began the drive since May 18. 
After the drive began, the first death of drug peddlers in ‘gunfight’ was reported on May 15 and, according to media reports, at least 306 ‘drug peddlers’ have so far been killed in ‘gunfights’ and found dead.
Most of the deceased, according to the police, were peddlers of Yaba containing methamphetamine that are smuggled in Bangladesh from Myanmar mainly through Bangladesh Myanmar border along Cox’s Bazar. 
The law enforcement agencies have so far arrested over 40,000 drug peddlers and addicts, as per officials sources in police and Rapid Action Battalion.
A recent report of Agence France-Presse shows that Myanmar’s Shan state is now thought to be one of the largest producers — if not the largest producer — of methamphetamine in the world, feeding a growing market that stretches as far as Japan and Australia. 
‘The country’s restive eastern borderlands have hosted a flourishing narcotics trade for decades as the key producer in the lawless Golden Triangle, which also comprises areas of China, Laos and Thailand,’ the report says.
Though there is no data as the exact number of drug addicts in the country, Department of Narcotics Control assumes that the country has over 60 lakh addicts.
New Age correspondents in Khulna, Jashore, Rajshahi and Sylhet report that the addicts now can get their coveted drugs at a rate higher than what it was before the drive had begun. 
Since its beginning, the drive witnessed a setback ahead of and during the December 30 national elections and, after the elections, the drive again got momentum.
‘The anti-drug drive got less “attention” due to the election. But now, we have been working to weed out drugs from society following “zero tolerance” towards drugs,’ assistant inspector general (media) Md Sohel Rana told New Age.
‘Only the anti-drug drive and killing peddlers cannot eliminate drugs from society. We need to reduce demand from society and at the same time we have to breach the supply chain,’ Dhaka University’s sociology professor Dr Shah Ehsan Habib told New Age.
And, if otherwise, despite deaths in drives, a new generation of drug peddlers and addicts would be created, he feared.
He stressed the need for media campaign, strong political motivation and commitment as well as honest approach of law enforcement agencies for containing drugs.
‘The government should take top-down approach, not the bottom-up approach, to eliminate drugs in society,’ he said. 
‘The government is now busy arresting the addicts and peddlers. But they should give importance to their treatment and rehabilitation,’ National Health Rights Movement chairman Professor Rashid-E-Mahbub told New Age.
He also emphasised building anti-drug awareness to combat the menace. ‘The drug supply cannot be contained without addressing the demand side,’ he noted, adding that stopping the supply was crucial. 
Stressing the need for demand reduction from society, National Human Rights Commission chairman Kazi Reazul Hoque said that the families, educational institutions, non-governmental organisations as well as elite people of the society would have to keep their due role in curbing drugs.
‘At the same time, strict initiatives should be taken to stop drug intrusion into Bangladesh through border,’ he said.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net