Samadbond sniffing addiction among children goes unchecked

0.6 million adding to tally every year

Sniffing of Samadbond, a sticking material used in furniture hardware work, is common among child drug addicts who beg on traffic signals to fulfill their addiction.

Rahimuullah Yousafzai, 15, is one of the Samadbond sniffers. He lives along his family in Golra Sharif. He told INFN that Samandbond is not easily available to children as the shopkeepers do not sell them. “We get this through some elder colleagues,” he added.

“We usually sniff Samadbond as drug. We first take a piece of cloth and throw the material over the cloth. Then we roll the cloth and then sniff it. At times, we also put the Samandbond in a bottle or container and hole in its cap and sniff it as and when required in the day.” he said.

From whatever Yousafzai earns in a day from begging, he gives Rs 50 to 60 to his mother while retains rest of the money for next day sniffing. He is among one of the hundreds of such children who are drug addicts in the capital. He begs near G-9 signals.

One of every tenth child in Pakistan seems to be a drug user. According to statistics, approximately 0.6 million people are joining club of drug users every year in Pakistan. By 2010, total drug users in the country reached nine million, out of which 1.5 million use opium, 750,000 are heroin addicts and 200,000 are drug-injecting users while 75,000 addicts are also suffering from HIV/AIDS.

Shahid Waseem, university student said, “since all drugs are equally harmful, so there should be zero tolerance for supply of any drugs to children and drug users should be punished for their good.“

Pakistan is not alone in facing this menace. With the globalization of the drug abuse problem in the last two decades, the situation has gone from bad to worse to the hell down the earth that the solution does not lie in the hands of individual. It has to be worked out through mutual efforts of governments as well as the natives.

The cops are not supposed to chase such boys and prison them. They need to help them out in some other way to get them rid of such addiction. Such shops must also be shut down which provides drugs.—