Pharma Veterans

Drug Abuse in Pakistan 5 – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #590 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #590. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. I would like to quote from a very recent article (published December 14, 2021) by a student at National Defence University, Islamabad, Ms. Palwasha Khan. “With the recent withdrawal of US troops and NATO forces from Afghanistan and the takeover of the Taliban, the smuggling of narcotics into Pakistan has further increased. In Pakistan, the prevalence of drug abuse is increasing at an alarming rate. However, risk factors, which are increasing vulnerability toward addiction, remain largely elusive.” The most used drugs are heroin and marijuana, with cannabinoids becoming more popular. O...

Drug Abuse in Pakistan 4 – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #589 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #589. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Abuse of psychotropic medicine, particularly benzodiazepines, goes back to many years. Valium (diazepam) and Ativan (lorazepam) were long abused by those who knew about them. The Pharma companies always maintained that these drugs were not addictive, rather only habit-forming. However, the habit was almost as strong as addiction, and many people got hooked on to them. Then came Lexotanil (bromazepam) and it replaced earlier products quickly. Two patterns were easily discernible: normal people got a prescription for anxiety and/or sleeping difficulty, they found relief and stuck to it;...