Published: 06:52 AM, 26 June 2026
8.2 million people are drug addicts countrywide: Salahuddin Ahmed
Bangladesh is home to an estimated 8.2 million drug addicts, driven primarily by the rapid spread of synthetic and semi-synthetic narcotics, Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed has said.
Salahuddin Ahmed shared the figures on Thursday during an event at the Ministry of Home Affairs conference room in the Secretariat, ahead of the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on June 26.
He officially distributed grant cheques to 15 private drug rehabilitation facilities at the function.
According to him, the government has endorsed a Tk 14.13 billion blueprint to build state-of-the-art, 200-bed treatment and rehabilitation hubs across seven divisional cities.
To back the private sector's frontline response, the ministry is rolling out Tk 11 million in grants divided among 73 non-government rehab units.
Salahuddin Ahmed acknowledged that current laws are falling short in breaking up drug cartels, leaving Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) operatives outmatched on the ground.
He explained that while heavily armed syndicates carry advanced weaponry, frontline narcotics officers are completely weaponless -- essentially taking knives to gunfights -- making a legal overhaul urgent.
A new legislative framework is being fast-tracked to parliament this session to fix the security gap, the Home Minister further said.
The drug crisis is also clogging up the legal system, with Salahuddin Ahmed pointing out that a staggering 80,000 narcotics lawsuits are sitting in limbo in Dhaka alone, alongside thousands of other cases stalled in district courts.
