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

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Interviews with drug <strong>abuse</strong>rs
In this section data from the <strong>in</strong>terviews with drug <strong>abuse</strong>rs are presented. As previously noted,
<strong>in</strong> each of the four cities <strong>in</strong>cluded <strong>in</strong> the study (Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, and Peshawar), three
samples of <strong>in</strong>terviews with drug <strong>abuse</strong>rs were collected. These were: drug-<strong>abuse</strong>rs <strong>in</strong> treatment
(persons receiv<strong>in</strong>g treatment for an alcohol problem only were not <strong>in</strong>cluded <strong>in</strong> the sample),
drug-<strong>abuse</strong>rs <strong>in</strong> prison and drug-<strong>abuse</strong>rs recruited <strong>in</strong> street sett<strong>in</strong>gs. For the purposes of bre
vity and convenience we have used the term “addict <strong>in</strong>terviews” to refer to these samples. The
reader should note that the sampl<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>clusion criterion used was that the respondents should
be regular users of hero<strong>in</strong> or drug <strong>in</strong>jectors, and <strong>in</strong> practice the sample did consist largely of
apparently dependent opioid users. A formal measure of dependence itself was not used as a
sampl<strong>in</strong>g criterion, however, although such a measure was made <strong>in</strong> the <strong>in</strong>terview.
Data collection
The analysis presented here will consider the three groups of “addict <strong>in</strong>terviews” <strong>in</strong> their totality
and also make comparisons across the three groups. All <strong>in</strong>terviews were conducted by
tra<strong>in</strong>ed members of the research team, and were carried out on a voluntary and confidential
basis. As recruit<strong>in</strong>g street samples of drug <strong>abuse</strong>rs is methodologically challeng<strong>in</strong>g members
of the research team with previous experience of this k<strong>in</strong>d of work or who had life experiences
that allowed them to more easily access drug <strong>abuse</strong>rs were used to assist with this part of
the study.
One thousand and fifty-five <strong>in</strong>terviews were conducted for this study. After data clean<strong>in</strong>g and
check<strong>in</strong>g procedures, a small number of <strong>in</strong>terviews (6) where excluded for reasons of the quality
of the report<strong>in</strong>g. Thus 1,049 <strong>in</strong>terviews were available for analysis and of these 12 were
female and 1,037 male. This sample cannot be thought of as reflect<strong>in</strong>g patterns of illicit drug
use among <strong>Pakistan</strong>i women. Whilst the <strong>abuse</strong> of hero<strong>in</strong> appears lower among women than
for men, the relative levels cannot be estimated from data reported here. For a number of cultural
reasons and other considerations, women appear disproportionately unlikely to appear
<strong>in</strong> any of the samples collected for this study and the topic of drug <strong>abuse</strong> among women is
taken up <strong>in</strong> the conclud<strong>in</strong>g part of this report. For the purposes of clarity and focus <strong>in</strong> report<strong>in</strong>g
on the study, the follow<strong>in</strong>g analyses are restricted to the sample of 1,037 male respondents.
Slightly more of these <strong>in</strong>terviews were conducted with treatment attendees (415), than
with the street addict sample (321), or the prison addict sample (301).
Demographics—age distribution
The mean age of the three sample groups were remarkably similar, 33 years for respondents
<strong>in</strong>terviewed <strong>in</strong> both treatment and street samples, and 31 years for those respondents
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