UN spearheads drug rehabilitation drive

The United Nations Drug Control Programme [UNDCP] on Tuesday launched a US $547,000 project, which will see 17 new drug treatment and rehabilitation centres established in Pakistan. The clinics will further enhance Pakistan’s image as a “drugs-combating success story”, said the UNDCP representative, Bernard Frahi, in the capital, Islamabad. More than 30,000 of Pakistan’s estimated four million drug addicts are expected to benefit from the “international-standard” treatment over the next three years. Rehabilitation will include counselling, family support, job placements and medical treatment. “We already have 149 detoxification centres around the country, but they do not have a holistic approach to drug treatment and rehabilitation,” explained Mohib Asad, deputy director-general of the Anti-Narcotics Force. “These centres will provide emotional as well as medical help. It is about looking after the whole person,” he said. Each of the 17 centres will “mentor” a nearby drug treatment clinic, in an effort to upgrade the services provided to embrace the holistic approach to drug addiction developed in Europe and the United States. Five of these clinics will have “women-friendly” programmes in a bid to attract female addicts. “Women tend to be reluctant to come forward, because of the social stigma attached to drug addiction,” said Frahi. “To get around this problem we will employ telephone consultants as the first point of contact for female addicts.” Frahi stressed the importance of addressing female addiction: “We did a survey of 98 women addicts. Results showed that 30 percent were addicted to heroin, 26 percent to tranquillisers, and the rest were addicted to hashish and opium.” A model clinic in Islamabad will set the standard for the rest of the country, being careful to adhere to cultural sensitivities. “We want to ensure that the treatment of drug addicts is excellent in every province of Pakistan,” he noted. The launch of the clinics will be complemented by two further projects - a US $200,000 HIV/AIDS prevention scheme targeting injecting drug users in Karachi, and a US $277,000 drug abuse education programme. UNDCP also operates an HIV/AIDS prevention programme in Lahore, which includes a mobile drug information van and 10 medical diagnosis units aimed specifically at intravenous drug addicts. “There has been a worrying shift in terms of how heroin is used,” explained Frahi, when asked why two of the three UNDCP-funded programmes focused on HIV. “Drug users have moved from inhaling to injecting, which increases the risk of HIV infection. This is a problem which will need addressing in the future.” There is good news, however. “Over the last 20 years I can confidently say that poppy cultivation has been stamped out, thanks to the work of the Pakistan government and US $210 million from UNDCP,” said Aziz Khan, secretary of the Narcotics Control Division. “Our poppy cultivation is 0.1 percent of what it was when poppy growing was at its peak in 1980. “Last year we attended to 100 acres of poppy growth in the Khyber Agency areas, and I am pretty sure that no crops were harvested as a result. Still, we are aware of the need to be vigilant.”