- Cannabis found to be most commonly used drug; 3.6% of adult population listed as its users
- Men more likely to use cannabis and opiates while use of tranquilisers and sedatives higher in women
As many as 6.7 million Pakistani adults or six percent of the country’s population used drugs last year, according to a survey report 2013.
The survey report, first of its kind, was launched jointly by Narcotics Control Division, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Tuesday.
The report revealed that a substantial proportion of Pakistan’s population aged 15 to 64 suffer from devastating consequences of substance abuse.
About 4.25 million individuals are thought to be drug dependent and treatment and specialist interventions are in short supply, available to less than 30,000 drug users a year. Moreover, not all structured treatment is free of charge.
Narcotics Control Division Senior Joint Secretary Zulqarnain Amir, while launching the report, said that Pakistan had a serious drug use problem affecting every segment of the society. He said the government is committed to eradicate the menace of drug use from the country especially among the youth.
UNODC representative Cesar Guedes stated that national drug survey 2013 was conducted for the first time in the region and it provided a comprehensive data of drug use and drug related HIV.
The data provided in the report will form the base line for future planning and designing of drug prevention and treatment programmes in Pakistan. He said that the objectives of the survey were to provide reliable estimates of the prevalence of drug use among the population aged 15 to 64 in Pakistan.
Cannabis was found to be the most commonly used drug in Pakistan as 3.6 per cent of the adult population or four million people are listed as its users.
Opiates, namely opium and heroin, are used by almost one per cent of overall drugs users (860,000 chronic heroin users) and the highest levels of use are seen in the provinces which border principal poppy cultivating areas in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Significant differences in patterns of consumption by type of drug used are observed among men and women.
While men are more likely to use cannabis and opiates, the use of tranquilisers and sedatives and prescription amphetamines is higher among women.
A series of surveys was conducted throughout the four provinces and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, including interviews of 4,533 high-risk drug users, 58 drug treatment centre representatives, 1,198 key informants and 51,453 participants randomly selected from the general population.
Survey results detected a very high prevalence of HIV risk behaviours among people who inject drugs.
Federal Board of Statistics Deputy Director General Munir Aslam and Narcotics Control Division Planning and Monitoring Unit (PMU) Director General Mohammad Shahid were also present at the launching ceremony.
