Dhaka, June 25 -- Bangladesh is home to an estimated 8.2 million drug addicts, driven primarily by the rapid spread of synthetic and semi-synthetic narcotics, the home minister 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 Jun 26.

He officially distributed grant cheques to 15 private drug rehabilitation facilities at the function.

According to him, the government has greenlit 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 ...