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

DRUG ABUSE IN PAKISTAN
It is therefore desirable both to explore those factors
that are associated with <strong>in</strong>itiation <strong>in</strong>to <strong>in</strong>ject<strong>in</strong>g
drug use <strong>in</strong> <strong>Pakistan</strong> and to monitor the level of
<strong>in</strong>ject<strong>in</strong>g among the hero<strong>in</strong> us<strong>in</strong>g population as a
whole.
Figure VII.
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Usually
Percentage of sample who
<strong>in</strong>ject (lifetime, last 12 months,
and usual route of
adm<strong>in</strong>istration)
<strong>Drug</strong> <strong>in</strong>ject<strong>in</strong>g amongst women
As noted earlier a very small number of women were
<strong>in</strong>terviewed for this study. For clarity of <strong>in</strong>terpretation
these <strong>in</strong>terviews were excluded from the analysis
presented earlier <strong>in</strong> this section. Of the total of
316 <strong>in</strong>jectors <strong>in</strong>terviewed two were female—these
<strong>in</strong>dividuals were <strong>in</strong>terviewed <strong>in</strong> Lahore. For the reasons
discussed earlier this data tells us little about
<strong>in</strong>ject<strong>in</strong>g practice among women <strong>in</strong> <strong>Pakistan</strong>. A prelim<strong>in</strong>ary
conclusion may be that drug <strong>in</strong>jection
among women may not be common but does exist.
However, comments made here on this topic are
largely speculative as little hard data exist to <strong>in</strong>form
the debate. The best conclusion that can be drawn
from this study is that this rema<strong>in</strong>s an important
topic for further <strong>in</strong>vestigation. However, women’s
drug use is likely to be a particularly hidden behaviour
<strong>in</strong> <strong>Pakistan</strong>, and any future studies will have to
be sensitive to the cultural factors that make discuss<strong>in</strong>g
this topic with female respondents particularly
challeng<strong>in</strong>g. Nonetheless this rema<strong>in</strong>s an
important subject for future <strong>in</strong>vestigation.
Ever
Last 12
months
Age, education and employment
The mean age of <strong>in</strong>jectors <strong>in</strong> the sample was
32 years, with a m<strong>in</strong>imum of 14 and maximum age
of 74 years. There were no significant differences
between the ages of those respondents who had
<strong>in</strong>jected a drug and non-<strong>in</strong>jectors, nor between the
average ages of the <strong>in</strong>jectors <strong>in</strong> the four cities.
Injectors had <strong>in</strong>itiated hero<strong>in</strong> use at the same age
as non-<strong>in</strong>jectors.
In terms of education, the <strong>in</strong>jectors reported more
years of education than non-<strong>in</strong>jectors. The mean
years of education for <strong>in</strong>jectors with<strong>in</strong> the sample
were 6.5, as compared to 5.6 years for non-<strong>in</strong>jectors.
With<strong>in</strong> the cities, the <strong>in</strong>jectors <strong>in</strong> Lahore (7.42) and
Quetta (7.39) had higher mean years of education
than those <strong>in</strong> Peshawar (6.6) and Karachi (5.9).
With regard to usual type of employment, one
observes major differences among employment categories
of <strong>in</strong>jectors with<strong>in</strong> the cities. The percentage
of <strong>in</strong>jectors with<strong>in</strong> each employment category however
differs slightly from categories of non-<strong>in</strong>jectors
<strong>in</strong> all the cities. In Karachi the large majority of <strong>in</strong>jectors
consisted of skilled (36%) and unskilled (29%)
workers. The other employment categories reported
were bus<strong>in</strong>ess (10%), professionals and students (4%
each). In Lahore the major categories for usual type
of employment among <strong>in</strong>jectors were skilled workers
(24%) and those affiliated with bus<strong>in</strong>ess (22%).
The other important employment categories <strong>in</strong>
Lahore were unskilled workers (15%), and professionals
(9%). The major employment categories for
<strong>in</strong>jectors <strong>in</strong> Quetta were professionals and bus<strong>in</strong>ess
(15% each), skilled (12%) and unskilled workers (9%).
The <strong>in</strong>jectors <strong>in</strong> Peshawar matched more closely the
<strong>in</strong>jectors <strong>in</strong> Lahore with regard to their employment
categories, but differed significantly from the categories
of non-<strong>in</strong>jectors <strong>in</strong> the city. The employment
categories of <strong>in</strong>jectors <strong>in</strong> Peshawar were skilled
workers (24%), bus<strong>in</strong>ess (21%), professionals (10%)
and unskilled workers (7%).
With regard to employment status <strong>in</strong> the preced<strong>in</strong>g
12 months there was a similar pattern of employment
observed among <strong>in</strong>ject<strong>in</strong>g drug users <strong>in</strong>
Karachi and Peshawar and among <strong>in</strong>jectors <strong>in</strong>
Lahore and Quetta. More than half of drug <strong>in</strong>jectors
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