Karachi, May 3: Mohammad Yusuf inhales the fumes rising from heroin burning on cigarette packet foil, resigned to the idea of death at the hands of the drug that has already claimed the lives of his four addict friends.``I have to go too because I am living in this valley of death,'' said Yusuf, 23, as he sniffed at the smoke from the deadly white power melted by a candle passed under the foil.Unshaven and dirty, Yusuf and thousands of others can be seen on pavements, in sewers and gutters, under bridges in Pakistan's largest city of Karachi, snorting, sniffing and smoking the lethal drug. They earn money by cleaning vehicles, collecting bottles from garbage bins for selling or resorting to petty theft.Many of the city's heroin addicts prefer to live near eating places where they can get free meals - rushing like flies to scoop up left-over food from the plates of customers. ``My family got me treatment. But I have no relation now except for my relationship with the heroin,'' said Abdur Razzaq, whohas been living on a sidewalk for the last six years.Official statistics show that Pakistan has at least 3.1 million drug addicts, majority of whom are in Karachi and most are expected to die of the drug.``These drug addicts are social outcasts and ultimately die of this deadly powder. We keep on collecting bodies of these addicts,'' said Faisal Edhi, who works with Pakistan's main humanitarian service, Edhi Welfare Trust. ``They do not live at rehabilitation centres. Even after spending months at our centres they return to heroin addiction,'' Edhi said.Pakistani officials trace the heroin problem to the Afghan war, which resulted in the migration of millions of refugees who brought with them guns and drugs. The officials say the government was making vigorous efforts, with international assistance, to curb drug smuggling and eliminate poppy cultivation.
