- By: Maj Aamir Zia (R)
There is a quiet epidemic brewing behind the high walls of Islamabad’s elite neighborhoods one that glitters under disco lights and dies in silence. Meth, or “ice” as it’s fashionably called, has found its way into the manicured lawns and marble floors of our so-called “model society.”
In drawing rooms scented with imported candles and denial, the whispers are growing louder students, models, influencers, even teenagers barely out of school chasing illusions in powder form. It’s the drug of choice for those who can afford to destroy themselves discreetly.
It often starts innocently curiosity at a party, a nudge from a friend, the thrill of belonging. Ice offers energy, focus, confidence a feeling of being invincible. But the high is a lie, and the fall is merciless. Paranoia, insomnia, psychosis, and emotional ruin follow. Behind every glowing Instagram story lies a dark room and a disintegrating soul.
This is not rebellion. It’s despair wrapped in glamour and privilege.
And where are the parents? Often right there successful, busy, well-meaning, but absent. They fund the addiction without realizing it, mistaking silence for stability, and luxury for love.
We’ve raised children who have everything except connection.
Our homes echo with the hum of generators, not conversation. We’ve built walls so high that even cries for help can’t escape them.
Schools and universities, too, tiptoe around the issue. They see the signs sudden aggression, academic collapse, vacant stares but they stay quiet. After all, who wants to offend the influential ?
We reward performance, not peace of mind. We teach ambition but not awareness. And so, our young drift between pressure and emptiness, seeking solace in chemicals that promise escape.
We gossip about those kids but refuse to see our own. We call it experimentation when it’s addiction. We moralize the problem, instead of medicalizing it.
The elite of Islamabad may have gates and guards, but no fortress can keep out despair. If we don’t act now, we will lose an entire generation not to poverty or extremism, but to numbness. This is not just a drug problem. It’s a meaning problem.
We need to talk in our homes, our schools, our mosques. We need awareness campaigns that reach the elite as much as the underprivileged. We need parents who listen, teachers who dare.
- The author can be reached via email:
- anuhkaf@gmail.com