Drug use in Kabul on the rise, says report

Nearly one-third of opium users and pharmaceutical drug users in Kabul are women, according to a historic report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which chronicles the first-ever assessment of the extent of drug use in the Afghan capital. "Such a report clearly shows that problem drug use, as well as drug control generally, is a cross-cutting development issue in Afghanistan that needs to be dealt with through partnerships between a wide range of actors from, for example, the ministries of health, education, labour and social affairs, women's affairs and information and culture," David Macdonald, UNODC's senior adviser on demand reduction, told IRIN from Kabul on Monday. The survey was carried out early in 2003, with about 200 drug users and 100 key respondents, including physicians, police and health workers, questioned across 10 Kabul interview zones demarcated as survey districts. There were found to be nearly 24,000 hashish users, over 14,000 pharmaceutical drug users, nearly 11,000 opium users, just over 7,000 heroin users and about 6,500 alcohol drinkers in Kabul alone, the survey said. Macdonald said it was likely that the actual number of drug users was much higher than the estimates showed. "Both key respondents and drug users frequently underestimate the numbers by only giving information for their locale rather than the broader target area," he told reporters at a press briefing. In Kabul alone there were at least 470 drug injectors, coupled with an increase in the number of people using two or more drugs at the same time or in quick succession, he added. "This is common among heroin users, who use opium, hashish and pharmaceutical drugs as well. These drug users are more difficult to work with than mono-drug users," Macdonald said. He noted that drug use in Kabul could be attributed to availability and demand. The demand for drugs was linked to the state of conflict Afghanistan had endured over the last 20 years, which led to many people developing mental health problems, using the drugs as a means of relief, he maintained. Macdonald said lack of awareness had also played a significant part in adding to the number of drug users. "If you ask heroin and opium users: 'Did you really know what you were taking before you started to use it? Did you know that you would become addicted to opium and heroin?', of course they did not know, they did not have an understanding," he said. UNODC has a project to develop an outreach referral system for drug addicts in Kabul to receive treatment from the NGO Nejat, a drug treatment organisation in southwest Kabul, and the Government's Drug Dependency Treatment Clinic, both of which have only very limited facilities for providing addicts with such a service. Another significant finding was that a considerable number of heroin and opium users began using the drugs whilst they were refugees in Iran and Pakistan. According to the report, 34 percent of opium users and 45 percent of heroin users interviewed began using these drugs outside Afghanistan. "Refugees are a particularly vulnerable and at-risk group for problem drug use," Macdonald said. "I think we also have to look at the neighbouring countries in the sense that Afghanistan is like an island surrounded by a sea of increasing drug use, particularly injecting drug use."