Experts fear rise in drug addiction

The price of heroin in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi has dropped to less than one US dollar per gram, raising fears of a rise in heroin consumption in the city. Drug rehabilitation experts say traffickers have been dumping large quantities of heroin from stockpiles in neighbouring Afghanistan in the country since the start of US-led strikes. "The new influx of heroin at the Pakistani borders is alarming. It will lead to a sharp boost in consumption," Dr Saleem Azam, head of the Karachi-based drug rehabilitation NGO Pakistan Society, told IRIN. Of immediate concern is a rise in the number of addicts who can now afford to inject heroin, which requires a larger quantity of the drug, now readily available. At a street cost of 80 US cents per gram, Azam feared a rise in HIV infection if injecting and needle sharing became more frequent. Although Afhanistan's Taliban regime had banned poppy cultivation in 1999, opium stockpiles from past production had remained untouched. Azam blamed the influx of illicit drugs on the break down of law and order in Afghanistan. "Since the US-led air strikes started, drug barons have been transferring stockpiles from Afghanistan into Pakistan as fast as they could," he said. An official from Pakistan's anti-narcotic force told IRIN that the price of a kilogram of heroin on the Afghan border had dropped from US $2,916 to US $2,460 since the US-led bombardment started in early October. He too, remained concerned that the availability of heroin would lead to a sharp rise in consumption in Pakistan, where about 100 mt of the illicit substance is consumed annually. Last year's national assessment survey by the UN's Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), estimated that there were 500,000 chronic heroin addicts in Pakistan. Most were men between the ages of 25 to 35, living mainly in cities in Sindh, Punjab and Baluchistan provinces. With one third of one percent of the population addicted, the report concluded that Pakistan had one of the highest rates of heroin abuse documented. Crucially, last year's survey had already recorded "a strong upward trend in injecting" among addicts before the recent drop in price. Parts of Pakistan became havens for drug production ever since the 1979 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. It took UNDCP and concerted bi-lateral efforts to eradicate opium poppy cultivation in tribal and border areas. Last year, Pakistan was awarded ‘poppy free’ status, although drug control experts acknowledge that a small amount of poppy cultivation still occurs in at least one tribal area, the Khyber agency, in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The social cost of widespread addiction has been devastating for the individuals involved. Wahida Begum, a widow living in central Karachi lost her eldest son six years ago to heroin addiction. She was further dismayed when her second son, Mohammad Rashid, 30, who was working as a tax and excise constable, also succumbed to the drug. "I took him to a drug rehabilitation centre where he was treated and came back home to begin a new life," she said. But on his return he became addicted again. "We are trying to hide this from his office as he will be sacked if his employers come to know about it," she added. Local experts maintain that heroin addiction has had other negative effects on communities in Pakistan. "With the influx of heroin, there must be a flood of illegal weapons in the country too. These two elements are integral to each other," Naveed Baseer, a human rights activist said, referring to the traditionally close links between arms smuggling and drug trafficking in the region. The US State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement announced on 6 November a US $73 million plan to reinforce Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. Pakistani drug officials hoped that this would help reduce the heroin influx through the border. While welcoming efforts to intercept drug trafficking, experts maintain that dealing with drug production at source is often the best approach. Earlier in November, the head of UNDCP for the region, Bernard Frahi, told IRIN that banning the cultivation of opium poppies in Afghanistan had removed about 3,000 mt of opium, 50 times more than what Pakistan had managed to seize in one year.