Day Against Drug Abuse

Say no to drugs

Every year, the world over, anywhere between 2 and 5 million people die from drugs directly or indirectly. People die for their money to buy drugs, from over dose, and because of accidents while intoxicated or being hit by someone who was. It's time to stand up to this menace and say 'No' to drugs.

A drug user smokes crack in the part of Sao Paulo's Luz neighborhood known as Cracolandia (Crackland). After 31 years of heavy drug trafficking and abuse in the district, Sao Paulo City Hall implemented a program to clean up Crackland but the problem is only worsening.

A drug user injects heroin at a construction site in Stone Town, Zanzibar. An estimated 4,000-6,000 narcotics addicts use syringes to inject themselves in Zanzibar, a tropical archipelago of one million people, better known for tourism and beach holidays than drug abuse. High rates of HIV among addicts threaten to affect the general population as growth in heroin trafficking through east Africa is making the narcotic more available.

A Mexican soldier arranges blocks of marijuana, weighing a total of 46 tons, before they are incinerated at a military base in the border city of Tijuana.

Afghan drug addicts lay on their beds during a visit by Yuri Fedotov, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), at a rehabilitation centre in Kabul. Drug addiction in Afghanistan, the world's top producer of opium and heroine, affects approximately one million Afghans between the ages of 15 to 64, according to a UNODC survey.

An Afghan smokes heroin in southern Herat, western Afghanistan.

A drug addict lies unconscious on the street in the old quarters of Delhi.

Doses of the crack-like drug called "paco" are displayed during a raid in search of illegal drugs at the "1.11.14" slum in Buenos Aires. Abuse of this cheap drug, made from a mixture of cocaine paste and toxic substances, is growing fast across poor neighbourhoods in Argentina, turning thousands into addicts, according to local media.

A heroin addict has heroin injected by a friend in Herat, western Afghanistan. A United Nations agency reported that opium poppy production has fallen in Afghanistan but there are enough stocks to keep supplying heroin production, the agency's new chief said on Wednesday. Nearly 3 per cent of the adult population of Afghanistan is addicted to opiates -- a problem authorities generally treat as a social ill rather than criminal offence.

Anti-narcotics police chemists test cocaine from a bag before its incineration in Lima, Peru. More than twelve tons of cocaine seized during the year was incinerated by police at its headquarters.

A marijuana plantation is seen in Amata, on the outskirts of Culiacan in Mexico's northwestern state of Sinaloa. By killing or capturing at least seven top drug cartel leaders in the past year, the Mexican government is sending a message: "Kingpins, beware." But without confronting deeper problems of corruption, money laundering, weak police and courts, and overcrowded prisons, taking down capos will have little effect on the lucrative drug trade, instead risking more of the violence that is scaring off some investors, security experts say.

Drug users smoke crack in the part of Sao Paulo's Luz neighborhood known as Cracolandia (Crackland).

A pregnant woman smokes crack in the part of Sao Paulo's Luz neighborhood known as Cracolandia (Crackland).

Anti-narcotics workers carry bags containing cocaine to an incinerator in Lima, Peru. More than twelve tons of cocaine seized during the year was incinerated by police at its headquarters.

An Afghan drug addict smokes heroin in an abandoned building in Kabul.

A policeman prepares seized drugs to be burned outside of Chinandega city, some 135 km (84 miles) west of the capital. Nicaragua's anti-drug authorities burned 997 kg (2,200 lbs) of cocaine seized from a merchant ship flying the Cyprus flag that was travelling from Colombia, according to the police.

A woman smokes a large joint before The Global Marijuana March in Toronto. Demonstrators took part in a march to support the legalisation of marijuana.

A large field of poppies grows on the outskirts of Jelawar village in the Arghandab Valley north of Kandahar.

Men prepare to inject heroin at an abandoned house in Ljubljana.

A police officer holds a block of cocaine during a news conference in Managua. Police seized 334 kg of cocaine, which was concealed in toys and sweets, on the southern border crossing of Penas Blancas in December 2010. The drugs were transported in a van and a truck with Guatemalan license plates originating from Costa Rica.

Source: India Syndicate
Photos: Reuters