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

DRUG ABUSE IN PAKISTAN
offences for each of the four cities. In particular it was
necessary to collect detailed <strong>in</strong>formation on prison
occupancy by drug addicts and drug peddlers. Specifically,
the number of people sent to prison <strong>in</strong> the last
year for drug use and drug-related offences was
required for each of the four cities. An audit form was
prepared for this purpose and used by specially
tra<strong>in</strong>ed members of the fieldwork team who visited
the prison and transferred <strong>in</strong>formation onto the form
from the prison records. This process was facilitated
by ANF officials contact<strong>in</strong>g prison governors <strong>in</strong> advance
and expla<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g the purpose of the study. The
consent of prison governors was required both for this
audit exercise and for the face-to-face <strong>in</strong>terviews with
the prison addicts (described below). The fact that
<strong>in</strong>formation for the audit was required only on those
prisoners serv<strong>in</strong>g sentences for drug-offences and that
drug <strong>abuse</strong>rs are housed <strong>in</strong> separate barracks with<strong>in</strong>
the prison, made achiev<strong>in</strong>g the objectives of the study
less demand<strong>in</strong>g than would otherwise have been the
case.
Face-to-face <strong>in</strong>terviews with
hero<strong>in</strong> <strong>abuse</strong>rs
The target for this exercise was to conduct 1,000 <strong>in</strong>terviews
<strong>in</strong> total with drug <strong>abuse</strong>rs. This would comprise 400 sampled
from patients currently <strong>in</strong> treatment (100 <strong>in</strong> each
city), 300 sampled from prisoners currently <strong>in</strong> jail (75 <strong>in</strong>
each city), and 300 sampled from the street addict population
(75 from each city). This number of <strong>in</strong>terviews was
considered to be sufficient for the objectives of the study
and achievable with<strong>in</strong> the available resources.
As with the key <strong>in</strong>formant study, all <strong>in</strong>terviews were conducted
us<strong>in</strong>g a set of structured questionnaires especially
prepared for the study. Questionnaires were <strong>in</strong> English and
Urdu and, as with the key <strong>in</strong>formant <strong>in</strong>terviews, considerable
effort was made to ensure accuracy <strong>in</strong> translation.
Methods for <strong>in</strong>terviewer tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g and supervision
were also the same as those described above for the key
<strong>in</strong>formant work. Data entry was conducted <strong>in</strong> <strong>Pakistan</strong> with
additional data clean<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the <strong>United</strong> K<strong>in</strong>gdom under the
supervision of the statistical advisor to the project.
Each questionnaire conta<strong>in</strong>ed an <strong>in</strong>troductory paragraph
expla<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g that the purpose of the study to the respondent,
that all <strong>in</strong>formation collected was confidential and
anonymous and that participation <strong>in</strong> the study was
entirely voluntary. The importance of observ<strong>in</strong>g appropriate
social research ethical standards was also discussed
at length dur<strong>in</strong>g the tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g of the field work team.
The questionnaires for the three samples covered the
same topics and only varied for those issues specifically
relevant to the <strong>in</strong>dividual sample group. Topics covered <strong>in</strong>
the questionnaires <strong>in</strong>cluded the follow<strong>in</strong>g:
Demographic <strong>in</strong>formation (sex, age, employment, and
liv<strong>in</strong>g situation)
History of attendance at drug treatment facilities
Attitudes to drug treatment
History of prison attendance
Patterns of current drug use
History of drug tak<strong>in</strong>g
Inject<strong>in</strong>g and HIV risk behaviour
Current problems
F<strong>in</strong>ancial situation
Knowledge of other drug users
Severity of drug dependence
Component study 3. A national
treatment register update
The third data collection module of the study was to update
the 1994 national register of drug treatment facilities <strong>in</strong>
<strong>Pakistan</strong>. Aga<strong>in</strong> the rationale for this exercise was that this
<strong>in</strong>formation was important <strong>in</strong> its own right and also that the
data produced could assist with an analysis of the scale of
hard-core hero<strong>in</strong> use <strong>in</strong> <strong>Pakistan</strong>. The 1994, register was considered
<strong>in</strong> urgent need of an update as it was strongly suspected
that considerable <strong>in</strong>accuracies now existed <strong>in</strong> the
register. The provision of drug treatment is one of the key
components of a comprehensive demand reduction strategy.
The debate on how best to develop treatment opportunities
requires as a first step an understand<strong>in</strong>g of exit<strong>in</strong>g provision.
This exercise was <strong>in</strong>tended to provide this understand<strong>in</strong>g
by collect<strong>in</strong>g data on current treatment capacity.
The 1994 report was used as a start<strong>in</strong>g po<strong>in</strong>t for this exercise.
Interviewers then contacted the treatment centres
and completed a brief, specially designed, audit form. This
process was facilitated by the fact that most treatment
agencies keep relatively good records, although central
collation of this <strong>in</strong>formation is poor.
To help identify new treatment centres that had been
established post 1994, and those that had ceased operat<strong>in</strong>g
<strong>in</strong> this period, staff at those agencies that were successfully
contacted were asked if <strong>in</strong> their area:
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❏
they knew of any new centres stat<strong>in</strong>g up s<strong>in</strong>ce
1994, or
they knew of centres operat<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> 1994 that had
subsequently closed down?
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