The mind is a dangerous place to get lost in. So is the past. An idle brain can make you miserable with ruthless efficiency. I have learnt to keep mine occupied, but also to keep it healthy. That balance matters. You may agree with me or you may not tolerate my presence at all, but you have a right to exist and to be as productive as you can. In an age shaped by artificial intelligence, post truth social media and a strange, rising civic rage, it is worth reminding ourselves what it means to be human.

Each year I return to this subject, not because it is fashionable, but because the crisis rarely receives the space it deserves in our national debate.

Pakistan faces a deepening emergency of youth drug abuse and suicide. The data is incomplete and often obscured by stigma, yet what is available is alarming. A 2024 survey cited at Karachi University reported that 44 per cent of university and college students admitted to drug use, 53 per cent of males and 31 per cent of females, with online procurement increasingly common. A 2025 systematic review of rehabilitation cases found heroin accounting for 48 per cent and cannabis 28 per cent among young users. Thirty five per cent had initiated use in adolescence, and 46 per cent presented with comorbid depression.

Suicide has reportedly become the fourth leading cause of death among Pakistanis under 30. Late adolescence, between 15 and 18 years, appears particularly vulnerable, with poisoning and hanging the dominant methods. There are no reliable monthly official statistics, partly because suicide remains criminalised and heavily stigmatised. The Anti Narcotics Force has warned that millions between 18 and 31 are at risk. Even allowing for methodological gaps, the direction of travel is........

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