Perception of Graduates about Drug Addiction in Azad Jammu and Kashmir
Syed Masroor Anwar, Azhar Saleem, Syed Shujaht Bukhari, A. Qadeer Khan, Nasir Mahmood

Abstract
Objective
The main objective of this study is to access the awareness about drug addiction among graduate students to highlight its causes and sources. Also to identify the source this can play vital role to overcome drug addiction in Azad Kashmir. Methods
The sample size of 250 graduate students was chosen from the enrolled graduate students of the universities including University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Mohi-ud-din Islamic University. By using stratified sampling we took 25 students from each district of Azad Kashmir. Computer software SPSS was used for coding and analysis of data. The graphical methodology, Chi-square test of association and Mann-Whitney U test was applied for statistical analysis.
Results
The results shows that mostly people (67.6%) thought that smoking is a door to drug addiction. 39.6% respondents perceived that drivers are mostly addicted, while 22.4% believed that students and 12.4% believed that businessman are mostly drug addicted. People with age less than 20 years were found 33.2% addicted to drugs while age groups 20-30and 30-40 were 37.6% and 19.2% addicted to drugs respectively. High class and low class possessed the trait of being drug addicts more as compare to middle class. Unemployment (14%), frustration (16.4%) and bad company (50%) are main causes of drug addiction while friends (38.8%), pharmacy (9.2%), market (15.2%) and Underground agents (30%) are common sources of drugs. The majority of respondents (47.6%) believed that family could help in matter to get rid of drug addiction while the other believed that community (20.8%), NGO’s (19.2%), parents (7.2%) and Govt.(5.2%) can do so.
Conclusion
This research about Drug Addiction (which is a curse for society) concluded that graduates perceived that drivers and students are mostly found drug addicts and mostly drug addicts belong to age less than 30 years. The main reasons are bad company, frustration and unemployment while the main sources of this addiction were friends and underground agents. The rate of drug addicts can be decreased by involving the addicts in different games and social activities and Govt. should ban the cultivation of these drugs.

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