Drug abuse in Pakistan - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

DRUG ABUSE IN PAKISTAN
associated with drug problems. Historically, <strong>in</strong>
<strong>Pakistan</strong> drug <strong>in</strong>ject<strong>in</strong>g has not been common
although, as noted earlier <strong>in</strong> this report, some evidence
exists to suggest this now may be chang<strong>in</strong>g.
At least for some parts of the country the data presented
here support this view. <strong>Drug</strong> <strong>in</strong>ject<strong>in</strong>g is
reported to be common <strong>in</strong> urban rather than rural
locales and <strong>in</strong> the prov<strong>in</strong>ce of Punjab. <strong>Drug</strong> <strong>in</strong>jection
appears least common <strong>in</strong> NWFP, where no key <strong>in</strong>formants
report <strong>in</strong>jection as common <strong>in</strong> their locale.
Opium has a long history of use <strong>in</strong> <strong>Pakistan</strong> and has
<strong>in</strong> the past been widely used by traditional medical
practitioners (Hakim) to treat a range of m<strong>in</strong>or ailments.
However, anecdotal accounts suggest that
the use of the drug as an <strong>in</strong>toxicant has decl<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong>
recent years. In the current research exercise <strong>in</strong>
Balochistan, opium was the drug most often reported
to be commonly used, although once more the
small sample sizes suggest this result should be
<strong>in</strong>terpreted with caution.
There was some tendency to report higher rates of
alcohol use <strong>in</strong> urban as opposed to rural areas
although this difference was not particularly pronounced—<strong>in</strong>
urban and rural areas a significant
number of key <strong>in</strong>formants reported that alcohol was
commonly used. Alcohol use was less often reported
as commonly used <strong>in</strong> NWFP than <strong>in</strong> other
prov<strong>in</strong>ces, with only 19% of key <strong>in</strong>formants report<strong>in</strong>g
use was common <strong>in</strong> their locale. This is a marked
contrast with Punjab where 71% of key <strong>in</strong>formants
report the use of alcohol as common and only 3%
that its use was “rare” <strong>in</strong> their locale.
Overall, the key <strong>in</strong>formants reports would suggest
that drug <strong>abuse</strong>, with the exception of opium, is
more a feature of urban rather than rural life <strong>in</strong>
<strong>Pakistan</strong>. That be<strong>in</strong>g said, this difference is not as
pronounced as expected, and <strong>abuse</strong> of other drugs
<strong>in</strong> many rural locales was reported at worry<strong>in</strong>gly high
levels. Similarly, prov<strong>in</strong>cial differences <strong>in</strong> report<strong>in</strong>g
rates are clearly observable, with the Punjab, the
largest prov<strong>in</strong>ce <strong>in</strong> population terms, hav<strong>in</strong>g
amongst the highest levels of reported common use.
No prov<strong>in</strong>ce appeared to be free of drug <strong>abuse</strong> problems.
However, if hashish and charas are excluded,
NWFP overall reported that use was less common
than elsewhere <strong>in</strong> <strong>Pakistan</strong>.
<strong>Drug</strong> <strong>abuse</strong> patterns are commonly known to vary
across demographic dimensions. In this study, to
explore variations by sex and age, key <strong>in</strong>formants
were asked to separately rate the drug “most commonly
used” by “men”, “women” and “young people”,
(the last def<strong>in</strong>ed for the purposes of this study as
less than 25 years of age). These data can be found
<strong>in</strong> table 5.
Table 5.
Respondents’ perceptions of the
differences <strong>in</strong> the drugs most
commonly used by men, women
and young people
Young
<strong>Drug</strong> type Men Women people
Hashish and
charas 140 (51%) 12 (10%) 177 (65%)
Hero<strong>in</strong> 74 (27%) 33 (27%) 46 (17%)
Opium 5 (2%) 16 (13%) —
Other opiates — 1 (>1%) —
Cough syrups
(for
<strong>in</strong>toxication) — — 1 (>1%)
Psychotropics 3 (1%) 45 (37%) 4 1%)
<strong>Drug</strong> <strong>in</strong>jection 7 (3%) 7 (6%) 7 (3%)
Alcohol 47 (17%) 8 (7%) 39 (14%)
Note: Sample N’s (men 276, women 122, young people 274).
As would be expected, male drug use <strong>in</strong> terms of
most commonly used substance broadly reflects the
overall pattern discussed above. Differences from
the overall picture are evident when women or young
people are considered. It should be noted that the
number of respondents falls to 122 for the question
on women’s drug use. This is because many key
<strong>in</strong>formants did not feel competent to answer this
question. This is probably due to both the facts that
drug <strong>abuse</strong> among women is a lower frequency activity
than male drug <strong>abuse</strong>, and that drug use among
women is a more hidden behaviour. Psychotropic
drugs were the type most commonly reported to be
used by women, followed by hero<strong>in</strong>. It should be
remembered that this question does not relate to
the overall numbers of <strong>abuse</strong>rs, but rather to the
drug most commonly used amongst those who do
<strong>abuse</strong> drugs <strong>in</strong> the locale. It is therefore debatable
what this result implies about the overall prevalence
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