ISLAMABAD: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has expressed concern that there is still no sign of improvement in the provision of drug treatment services as was envisaged under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted two years ago.
One target of the SDGs emphasised on strengthening the prevention and treatment of substance abuse. The UNODC’s World Drug Report 2017 — released ahead of International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, observed on June 26 — said “as few as one in six people in need of interventions has access to drug treatment”.
The availability and access to scientific evidence-based intervention for treatment of drug use disorders remain limited in many countries, the report pointed out.
It was learnt that hepatitis C was causing the greatest harm among the estimated 12 million people who inject drugs worldwide. Out of this number, one in eight (1.6m) lives with HIV and more than half (6.1m) live with hepatitis C, while around 1.3m are suffering from both hepatitis C and HIV.
Overall, three times more people who use drugs die from hepatitis C (222,000) than from HIV (60,000). However, the report stressed that despite recent advances in the treatment of hepatitis C, access remained poor, as treatment remained very expensive in most countries.
In 2015, about a quarter of a billion people used drugs. Of these, around 29.5m people — or 0.6 per cent of the global adult population — were engaged in problematic use and suffered from drug use disorders, including dependence. Opioids were the most harmful drug type and accounted for 70pc of the negative health impact associated with drug use disorders worldwide.
The report revealed that people who used drugs were overrepresented in prison populations in many countries. The standard of care provided to those who were incarcerated should be equivalent to that received by those outside prison, with appropriate continuity of care between prison and the wider community in line with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.
Synthetic drugs
The synthetic drugs market has never been so complex and widely spread. In particular, the range of substances on the market with stimulant effects, such as traditional amphetamine type stimulants and NPS, are increasing.
The report claimed that the rapid evolution of synthetic drugs required forensic capacity with adequate equipment and human resources, together with new approaches to collecting data on drug use, as many users were often ignorant about the compound they were taking.
Although not all militant groups depend on drug profits. Without the proceeds of drug production and trafficking, which make up almost half of the Taliban’s annual income from all sources, the reach and impact of the Taliban would probably not be what it is today, the report said. The report estimated that non-state armed groups raised about $150m in 2016 from the Afghan illicit opiate trade.
Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2017
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