Large Quantities of Drugs Are Trafficked Through the Postal System: Shamau Shareef

Modes of drug trafficking have undergone change and "large quantities of drugs" are currently entering the country through the post, said Shamau Shareef, Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Health and the Chairman of the National Drug Agency.

Speaking on "Fala Surukhi", which airs on RaajjeTV, Shareef said that previous trends of drug use and drug trafficking have undergone a lot of change.

He said that 10 years ago, the average age of a drug user would be between 22 and 37. However, he said, the current range has expended to the ages of 17 to 68. He said that what was apparent from this trend was that many addicts from a decade ago had never completely rid themselves of their addiction.

He said that drugs were had often been sourced from neighbouring countries a decade ago, but these days more drugs were coming in from the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and other European countries. The modes of trafficking had also changed a lot, he said.

He said that a new method of drug trafficking involved transporting large amounts of substances through the postal system. In addition, he pointed out that most drugs that had been trafficked into the country had been plant-based drugs in the past, yet in recent times, chemical-based drugs make up a large quantity of the trafficked volumes.

Shareef said that many young people have fallen prey to drug use, and that young people under the age of 18 and migrant workers are often used by traffickers to sell and transport drugs. He also pointed out that there has been a drastic increase in methamphetamine use, and he said that this was a cause for concern.