Crystal Methamphetamine “Ice” of more than Tk 100 crore is entering into Bangladesh each year allegedly due to lax-vigilance of the concerned law enforcers. According to a media report on Friday, Myanmar-based narcotics smugglers are supplying the synthetic drug by taking only 20 to 30 per cent of the payment in advance. Drug smugglers from either side of the border meet in the deep sea pretending to be fishermen, and within a few minutes, the parties exchange ice and money, said the Rapid Action Battalion following the arrest of five members of an ice smuggling gang on Wednesday night from Munshiganj.
The elite force’s legal and media wing at a press briefing on Thursday said that they recovered about 12 kilograms of ice worth about Tk 50 crore — making it the largest haul of recovery in recent history. They also recovered one lakh pieces of yaba, two foreign pistols, Myanmar SIM cards, Tk 1.64 lakh in cash and one lakh Myanmar kyat from the arrestees. To them, the consignment is first taken to Saint Martin and then to Sonadia Island. Ice is then transferred to Sandwip, where it is divided into small packages and sent to the Barishal, Munshiganj, Manikganj and Narayanganj. By road, the drugs are then transported to Dhaka and elsewhere.
Experts said because of the negative impact of information technology, family and social pressures are causing frustration and depression among the youths. Consequently, many young people are becoming addicted to drugs. The demand for drugs is increasing day by day as the number of such exhausted youths is increasing. The type of drug is also changing year by year to meet their demand. Now, the country’s market is largely dominated by the harmful drug Ice or crystal meth. Though the Department of Narcotics Control does not have any statistics on the number of drug addicts, unofficially there are over 70 lakh addicts in the country. Drug addicts use drugs worth over Tk 7,000 crore a year.
Ice, according to health experts, is a
more deadly drug than even Yaba as it harms the human body severely. It increases the risk of insomnia, hyperactivity, amnesia, brain disorders, stroke, heart disease, kidney and liver complications, mental fatigue and depression.
We deserve to be treated us by the government of no importance but they should not be careless about ruing our young jobless ones as drug carriers. Our selfish educated people are our national curse. But it hurts when we see our judges also think that they are doing a good job in fighting drugs by sending the young carriers to jail. The drug lords safely doing their drug business by supporting the government as being conduit of money laundering of powerful ones.
