According to various sources, especially worried parents, drug peddlers are active in every neighbourhood of the city. In affluent areas like Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara, Uttara, Dhanmondi, Wari and other areas, school children are 'discreetly provided' with cell phone numbers to which they can call to order 'their drug of choice' for home delivery. The delivery is prompt, reliable and smooth.

While the city's drug rehabilitation centres are doing brisk business treating thousands of addicted children, these organized gangs peddling heroin, phensidyl, yaba, pathedrine injection, marijuana or ganja are targeting children from the affluent section of the society. The peddlers mingle with students in private universities, English medium schools and at popular hangouts of youngsters.

According to parents of a student at a top English medium school of the city, their son, a brilliant candidate of O-level exams, got hooked on to heroin. Within a matter of six months, their child was transformed into a 'strange person', said the helpless parents.

"The family was in a dilemma when our child one day confessed to being addicted to drugs and said that he was unable to appear in the exams," said the worried mother requesting not to be named. "He told us how he could get the drug by making a simple phone call," she added. Her son is now undergoing treatment at a city drug rehabilitation centre.

Asaduzzaman Jewel, coordinator of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said the city flooded with hard drugs is not a new phenomenon. "Absence of political foresight and governance and a trend among 'drug lords' to make quick money are main reasons behind this sudden surge," he explained.

No statistics is available on the number of drug addicts in the city. However, several non-government organisations (NGO) estimate that there might be around 3,00,000 drug addicts in the city.

Yaba, heroin and pathedrine are now available widely at such a low price in the capital that people from all walks of life -- a rickshaw puller or a rich businessman's child -- can afford it, researchers noted.

The Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) however disagrees that easy access of the lethal drugs is destroying a large section of our bright youngsters. "Who says drugs are widely available?" asked a DNC official requesting anonymity. "If it is so, then why are we here?" he added.

The official however admitted that DNC is helpless. He blamed members of the law enforcement agencies and accused them of being directly involved with drug trafficking and distribution.

"We arrested several drug lords a number of times, but could not keep them behind bars as they easily got away by using their political influence to get bail," explained the DNC official.

Police sources said most of these drugs reach the country through unprotected borders and all air, sea and land ports.

Sources said the traffickers and peddlers are so organised that they are able to control drug prices at their will. For instance, recently the traffickers and peddlers raised the price of phensidyl to Tk 500 per bottle from Tk 150 and slashed the price of yaba pills from Tk 300 to 130. It was a move to popularise yaba pills to youngsters as yaba is easy to hide and transport.

In most cases, parents of the addicts suffer the most. Many families are devastated when a family member is addicted to drugs. Sometimes parents start blaming each other for their child's drug abuse as they do not know how to deal with the situation.

According to experts, there are instances when the parents' relationship drift apart and even marriages break up due to accusing each other for the addiction of their children.

"When I found out that my son is a drug addict, we felt so helpless. We could not rebuke him and we started to blame ourselves," said a mother who came to visit her son in a drug rehab centre.

"But as days passed and I gained experience, I learned that the availability of these deadly drugs to the youngsters is the main cause for drug addiction," she added.