ZEERAK KHAN

ROLL NO: 23581

FEATURE STORY

PRISONER OF HEROIN
By Zeerak Khan
Attaullah Khan, a resident of Peshawar, KPK, is a 20 year old boy who lives with his
single mother and aunt. His father died when he was a child. Having no siblings, his
large circle of friends are the ones he is very close to. Attaullah and all his friends
are drenched in the shackles of drug addiction. Passing puffs, reusing syringes,
snorting drugs are how his each hour passes. His eyes are blood shot, muscles stiff,
and hands shaky. He tells me his painful story of drug addiction and his never
ending struggle to come out of it.
I first started smoking cigarettes at the age of 12. No one was there to stop me. My
mother would yell at me sometimes but I was a spoiled child so I would never take
her seriously. My friends in school got me into smoking cigarettes. Cigarettes gave
me allergic reactions and I was soon repulsed towards them. A year after smoking
cigarettes, a friend of mine introduced me to a new drug that I profoundly am in
love with. Marijuana made me a different kind of a man. I smoked it and was
instantly addicted. I remember the first time my friend gave me the drug. He was
my neighbor and one night he snuck inside my house and when I saw him on the
terrace, he was smoking this drug that had a strange aroma. I insisted that I try it
but he replied, My friend, once you try this drug, youll forever run after it. And he
was right. Ever since I first tried it, Ive been spending all my money on this
particular drug. But after a long time of smoking marijuana, a childhood friend of
mine, Adam, who was brought up in America, came to visit me. He had a variety of
drugs including Heroin, Cocaine, Ketamine, DMT and ecstasy. He let me try each
one of them and I was taken away by them all. But the drug I exclusively got
addicted to was Heroine. The first time I injected heroine, the feeling was surreal.
The drug was enchantingly amazing. It traversed me to a heavenly space where I
wanted to stay for an infinite time.
According to Attaullah, These drugs that Adam bought with him were easily
accessible in the area of Shakas, which was about a kilometer away from the
residential area of Hayatabad. Shakas is an area widely notorious for the bulk
amount of drugs and alcohol that are sold there. This area shares no border with
Peshawar, and is a part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. A place that runs
by no rules or authority, the drugs are sold openly and are easily accessible to
young and old people alike. More than 60% of the Peshawar youth Is addicted to at
least one of the lethal drugs that results in lifelong dependency and can cause
death. Attaullah has become a regular customer of a heroine seller named Kaleem
Ullah, who runs a business that involves conversion of opium to heroine in

Afghanistan. Large stashes of heroine are then imported to Afghanistan which is

brought by Kaleem Ullah, and he then sells them to customers, most of which are
young school and college boys.
Kaleem Ullah says, I sell heroine but refrain from using the drug myself. I know the
side effects of this horrible drug and know that high dosage can lead to life
threatening consequences. I have seen people dying of overdose by heroine. One of
my customers used the same syringe used by an HIV patient and he is now
secluded inside his room and suffers from AIDS. According to the doctors, small
diseases such as fever, flu or pneumonia can result in death of the boy because of
the decline in immune system.
But if Kaleem ullah is aware of the never ending consequences of heroine abuse,
then why does he still keep on selling them? He answers, I sell them to earn for a
living, just like everybody else. This is a high profit business which I cant choose to
end. I have to feed my children and wife. The customers very consciously choose to
buy and I always lecture them about the repercussions that they will face. They still
insist on buying them and most of my customers are young boys under 20.
The fact that no authority or penalty is charged against such drug dealers and
sellers is alarming and unfortunate. Atta Ullahs case is one of the many thousands
who are victimized by such A-class drugs, the high dosage of which can lead to
death.
Atta Ullah further states his story, After I indulged in A-class drugs, apart from
smoking Marijuana on a daily basis, I also experienced the lows of the drugs. The
highs give you a surreal, hypnotizing effect but the lows are excruciating. You get
depressed, angry, and lethargic, your appetite disappears and you start to harm the
people around you. I often hit my mother when I got depressed and after she would
refuse to lend me money to buy the drugs. The feeling of remorse vanished from
me. I stopped feeling regretful and indulged in a pit of self- pity. My mother forced
me to go to rehab many times but I retaliated each time. So one day, she had the
staff of a rehab centre tied me up and dragged to the centre forcefully. Life there
became hell for me. I was not even allowed to smoke cigarettes there. My body
fought with the demons inside me that longed for heroin and marijuana desperately.
I was discharged after three months, and when Adam visited me again after a
month, I relapsed into injecting heroin again. Once again, enjoying every moment of
heroin addiction.
Even after several failed attempts, Atta Ullah still injects heroin to this date. In my
long interview with him, he expressed his strong desire of wanting to free his soul
from heroin, but at the same time felt, that without it, he would be incomplete. His
mother has lost hope and no longer expects him to be emancipated from the
slavery of drug abuse. An improper rehabilitation system is also one of the many
reasons why it failed to stop Atta Ullah from the atrocious drug. A lack of authority

on drug dealers and sellers is perpetuating this situation and the drug abusers
numbers are rising. This situation is not just limited to KPK. The same problem
exists everywhere in Pakistan where the supply of drugs is easily available and the
users many. Initiatives need to be made to restrict drug dealers from selling them
and importations of drugs from tribal areas and countries like Afghanistan should be
banned permanently.