25,000 heroin addicts in City

KARACHI - The increasing number of drug addicts is an alarming situation for the government as there are over 25,000 heroin users in Karachi alone. The government in a recent survey has admitted that 30 to 40 HIV positive cases are reported every year across the country.
Pakistan is, at present, concentrated epidemic country for HIV/AIDS, while WHO/UNAIDS estimates that there are round 46,000- 210,000 adult HIV positive cases in Pakistan.
According to the National AIDS Control Programme surveillance report second quarter 2006, reported HIV positive cases are 3,047 out which 783 are injecting drug users.
A major epidemic has already been detected among injecting drug users in the city of Karachi, of whom 26 percent were found HIV-infected in 2004 by the Ministry of Health Pakistan.
In this wake a Drug Demand Reduction HIV Child and Gender (DDRCG)s consultant Zakir Shoaib told The Nation that more than half million people including women were injecting heroin in their bodies.
It is deplorable that the current statistics on Pakistans drug problem are outdated and do not tell the whole story, while the number of drug addicts has increased rapidly in few years, he added. He said that more then 2,500 reported cases of HIV positive have been reported in various parts of Pakistan, according to statistics since the disease was officially acknowledged in the late 80s. However, many believe the actual figure to be much higher at 70,000.
The saddest part of it is that female drug users represent a small segment of Afghanistan drug users population, yet their situation is of particular concern.
This is compounded to womens unique social and biological vulnerabilities, which often place them at a higher risk of HIV transmission.
He said the social factors such as unemployment leading to pure boredom were the main reasons for the abuse. Drugs like heroin are becoming more readily available at a cost of more then Rs one hundred unpurified per gram; most of the illegal substances were coming in from Afghanistan via Pakistans North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
Commenting on the history of drug supplying in the country, he said that the drugs particularly heroin introduced in Pakistan from 1979 when three mega events occurred including Ziaul Haq regime, Afghan War and Iranian Revelation.
It must be mentioned here that National Assessment Study on the Drug Abuse Situation in Pakistan, conducted in 2000, estimated the number of hard-core drug dependent persons, chronic heroin users and injecting drug users at 500,000.
The representative quoted the survey report of United National Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) conducted last year in which it was revealed that Afghanistan is the largest producer of narcotics worldwide with an estimation of 93 percent of global opiates market.