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

MAPPING THE NATIONAL CONTOURS OF DRUG ABUSE
After hero<strong>in</strong>, alcohol received the second highest
overall problem score <strong>in</strong> all prov<strong>in</strong>ces with the
exception of Balochistan, where hashish and charas
problems received a higher rat<strong>in</strong>g. In Punjab nearly
half (48%) of all key <strong>in</strong>formants reported that
alcohol caused major problems <strong>in</strong> their community
and none reported that there were no local
problems due to alcohol <strong>abuse</strong>. In Balochistan
alcohol problems were not widely recognized—with
only one key <strong>in</strong>formant report<strong>in</strong>g major problems
result<strong>in</strong>g from the use of alcohol and nearly half
(47%) report<strong>in</strong>g only few alcohol related problems <strong>in</strong>
their area.
Whilst hashish/charas was the drug reported to be
most commonly used <strong>in</strong> all locales it was not necessarily
perceived to be caus<strong>in</strong>g major problems by
respondents. Overall rat<strong>in</strong>gs suggest that its use was
perceived as caus<strong>in</strong>g fewer problems than either
hero<strong>in</strong> or alcohol. That be<strong>in</strong>g said, hashish and charas
consumption was not regarded as non-problematic.
Seventeen per cent of all key <strong>in</strong>formants reported
that major problems <strong>in</strong> their locale were caused
by hashish or charas, and just under half (47%) that
some problems were due to the use of this drug
type.
Figure III.
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Hashish
Hero<strong>in</strong>
Cumulative problems aris<strong>in</strong>g
from drug <strong>abuse</strong> <strong>in</strong>dex,
reported by key <strong>in</strong>formants
<strong>in</strong> each state
Opium
Other opiates
Cough syrups
Psychotropics
<strong>Drug</strong> <strong>in</strong>jection
Punjab S<strong>in</strong>dh Balochistan NWFP
Note: Higher score <strong>in</strong>dicate more reports of problems.
Solvents
Alcohol
Some prov<strong>in</strong>cial differences merit note. In Punjab,
as many as 24% of respondents reported major local
problems aris<strong>in</strong>g from solvent <strong>abuse</strong>, whereas this
was not the case for the other prov<strong>in</strong>ces. The use of
cough syrups for <strong>in</strong>toxication was also perceived as
result<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> local problems <strong>in</strong> Punjab. In
Balochistan, opium use was seen as result<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>
major problems <strong>in</strong> 33% of locales, whereas elsewhere
opium was not widely regarded as caus<strong>in</strong>g
major problems.
Table 12.
Difference <strong>in</strong> respondents’
perceptions of differences <strong>in</strong>
the drugs caus<strong>in</strong>g the most
problems for men, women and
young people <strong>in</strong> the locale
Young
<strong>Drug</strong> type Men Women people
Hashish and
charas 27 (10%) 5 (5%) 113 (41%)
Hero<strong>in</strong> 206 (75%) 36 (37%) 112 (41%)
Opium 5 (2%) 14 (14%) 1 (>1%)
Other opiates — 1 (1%) —
Psychotropics — 27 (28%) 1 (>1%)
<strong>Drug</strong> <strong>in</strong>jection 6 (2%) 2 (2%) 4 (2%)
Alcohol 30 (11%) 12 (12%) 41 (15%)
Note: Sample numbers: 274, 97, 273 respectively.
Attitude questions
To explore some of the issues that emerged dur<strong>in</strong>g
the preparatory work for the study a set of attitude
questions was prepared to which key <strong>in</strong>formants
were asked to give a standard attitud<strong>in</strong>al response
rang<strong>in</strong>g across a Likert scale from “strongly disagree”
to “strongly agree”. These data can be found <strong>in</strong> annex
table A.II.9. Key <strong>in</strong>formants tended to agree with
questions that suggested that many drug <strong>abuse</strong>rs
were too poor to access treatment provision and
were also responsible for considerable amounts of
local crimes. Respondents were more equivocal <strong>in</strong>
reply to a question on whether hero<strong>in</strong> use had
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