Meth and murder in Pakistan
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In the daily tsunami of news that inundates us, from political intrigue and machinations at the highest levels of the state, to deals with the TLP and peace talks with the TTP, its easy for everyday atrocities to get lost beneath the waves of breaking news and breathless analysis.
Lost are stories like that of Muhammad Zada, a young activist and journalist who made it his life’s mission to speak out against the drug mafia, and the nexus of corrupt officials that facilitates it, in his native Malakand.
This month, that promising life was cut short by an assassin’s bullet. CCTV footage of the scene shows Muhammad Zada walking home, and as he turns into an alley, two men approach on a motorbike. One of them, clad in a shawl that obscures his identity, dismounts and walks after him. Then the dark alley is lit up by the muzzle flash, a moment of brightness in the gloom that marks the taking of a life.
Who killed Muhammad Zada? One clue may come from a fiery speech he delivered in a town meeting held in a mosque in the presence of local officials and residents. There he charge-sheeted the local administration and police, accusing them in clear terms of being in cahoots with the drug mafia that has poisoned so many lives in his hometown. It was an issue that literally hit too close to home for him, as his own relatives had become addicts.
Following the killing, protestors took to the streets and the administration duly suspended the DC and the AC, while also promising that the culprits were being traced.
These assurances haven’t done much to appease the locals, many of whom openly say that the very drug dealers they hold responsible for Muhammad Zada’s death are regular fixtures in the area’s police stations and administrative offices, where they enter not as criminals, but as honoured guests.
In the past the drug peddling was limited to hashish, opium and heroin. Now however, with the advent of crystal methamphetamine, known locally as ‘ice’, the nature of the game has changed.
Zarrar Khuhro
The area Muhammad Zada hails from has always been a hotbed for such activity, but in the past the drug peddling was limited to hashish, opium and heroin. Now however, with the advent of crystal methamphetamine, known locally as ‘ice’, the nature of the game has changed.
Methamphetamine was first synthesized by a Japanese scientist in 1893, and while it was originally used for medical reasons, such as a treatment for asthma or a weight loss tool, the advent of World War II saw its stimulant properties bring it to the attention of both Axis and Allied militaries, which used the drug to keep its soldiers awake and focused. The Royal air force, for example, doled them out to pilots while calling them ‘wakey-wakey’ pills.
The German Wehrmacht doled out millions of meth tablets, known as pervitin, to its front-line soldiers, especially those involved in the invasion of Russia. The Japanese kamikazes, notably, were given a high dose of the drug before embarking on their suicide missions. The choice of meth was an obvious one, as the drug causes loss of appetite, induces a high-energy, near manic state, and also banishes sleep more effectively than any other stimulant.
But it’s also incredibly addictive, and so the decades following the end of the war saw an epidemic of meth addiction, especially in the US, where it was known as ‘speed’ and in post-war Germany and Japan, due to their higher use of the drug during the war, there were major epidemics.
Of course, the version of the drug we now see in the market is far more refined and powerful than the previous varieties, and thus far more dangerous.
The first clue that meth had arrived in Pakistan was in November 2012 when a blast was reported in an apartment in Karachi’s defence area. This was when terrorism was peaking in Pakistan and so the first instinct was that this was a bomb laboratory that had seen an accidental explosion. But when police arrived at the scene, they found none of the usual apparatus associated with such a lab; no wires, no timers, no explosive material. What the police didn’t realise at the time was that this was in fact a lab meant to synthesize methamphetamine. Here we should note, that crystal meth, unlike other drugs like cocaine or heroin, does not necessarily require a naturally occurring precursor; it can be manufactured entirely from chemical ingredients, many of which can be easily derived from commercially available products, although restrictions on the supply of pseudoephedrine, a critical ingredient, has made the job harder.
Northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has emerged as the center of this scourge, and the number of addicts - many of whom are students attracted to the stimulant properties of ice - increases daily, as do seizures of the drug. However, it is by no means limited to KP and earlier this year, a young addict in Lahore murdered his entire family while under the delusion that he was a character in a video game. As opposed to heroin addicts, the chronic meth user is also prone to violent psychotic outbursts.
Where is all this meth coming from? While there are undoubtedly many meth labs currently operating in Pakistan, Afghanistan has become a major producer, boosted by the discovery by local manufacturers that the Ephedra plant – which grows wild in many regions – can be used to extract ephedrine. This in turn has reportedly led to Afghan meth of varying quality flooding into Pakistan, and repeated seizures by the coast guard of meth stashes indicate that Pakistan is not just a consumer, but also a transit point for meth traffickers.
- Zarrar Khuhro is a Pakistani journalist who has worked extensively in both the print and electronic media industry. He is currently hosting a talk show on Dawn News. Twitter: @ZarrarKhuhro
