Call to raise awareness about drug abuse
The theme of this year's campaign is 'Children and drugs' and the slogan is 'Drugs are not child's play'.
Government and non-government organisations and different socio-cultural organisations arranged elaborate programmes to raise awareness about drug abuse, which is destroying the future of thousands of people, including children, across the country.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. The programmes included rally, roundtable, discussion, street drama and human chain.
At a discussion held at the National Museum auditorium, the speakers said illicit drug trafficking is no longer an internal problem, rather it is an international problem.
Drug abuse cannot be stopped by only enforcing laws, they said, adding that raising awareness is a must to combat it.
They also called on guardians, teachers and close relatives of children and youths to be more alert to prevent drug abuse.
Organised by the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC), the discussion was addressed by State Minister for Home Lutfozzaman Babar, Additional Secretary of the ministry Mohammad Muhsin and DNC Director (administration) Shahadat Hossain.
No countries, whether developed or developing, are safe from the network spread by drug mafia across the world, Babar said.
He said drug abuse is destroying the peace and social stability and creating obstacles to fostering the talents of the young generation.
The drug addicts are also creating law and order situation as they often get involved in various crimes such as theft, robbery and mugging to obtain money for drugs, he added.
Quoting from a report of World Health Organisation (WHO), Babar said 2.1 crore adolescents and youths in the world are addicted to heroin and cocaine.
He said the government has made concerted efforts to prevent drug abuse.
Work is underway to upgrade the 40-bed Central Recovery Centre for the Drug Addicts to a 250-bed Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre, he added.
He called on the private rehabilitation centres to reduce the charges for the treatment of drug addicts.
According to the DNC, a total of 1,938 cases were filed against 2,112 people between July 2004 and May 2006 on charge of possessing illicit drugs.
During the period, the DNC also seized 12.8 kg of heroin, 64,879 bottles and 65.4 litres of phensidyl and around 633 kg of cannabis.