ICOS NEWS RELEASE
24 NOVEMBER 2005
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UN AND AFGHAN COUNTER NARCOTICS MINISTRY REPORT: ALARMING FIGURES ON DRUG USE IN AFGHANISTAN
Think Tank announces Plan for Addiction Treatment Initiative for Afghan drug users
“Drug use and addiction in Afghanistan must not become a forgotten agenda,” says think tank Director.
KABUL – With the release today of alarming drug use figures in the first national survey of drug use in Afghanistan, ICOS, an international drug policy think tank, has announced plans for an Addiction Treatment Advocacy Initiative to help bridge the gap between public health and drug policy in Afghanistan. The survey was conducted jointly by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Ministry of Counter Narcotics and the Ministry of Health.
“With 170,000 opiate users in Afghanistan - 1.4% of the adult population - it is becoming increasingly urgent to address the alarming levels of drug use in the country,” said Emmanuel Reinert, Executive Director of ICOS.
Drug use in Afghanistan has increased markedly in recent years. More and more refugees are returning from neighbouring countries which have high levels of heroin consumption such as Iran and Pakistan. According to the UN and the Afghan government, nearly 50 per cent of both male and female drug users first use heroin as refugees.
Heroin is most frequently administered by injection and so brings with it the risk of associated health-related problems such as HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis C, which are spread by injecting drug users sharing needles.
“There is a high risk of a future HIV/AIDS epidemic in Afghanistan because of refugees who have become injecting drug users in neighbouring countries coming back into the country,” said Reinert. “The dramatic situation we witness today in Eastern Europe and the Russian Federation, where HIV prevalence rates among drug user groups are extremely high, can easily spread to Afghanistan in the near future.” The “Aids Epidemic Update: December 2005” report, released on Monday by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization confirms the dominant role injecting drug use plays in the spread of HIV/AIDS.
“Innovative solutions are already being used in Europe,” said Reinert. “Over the past 20 years European countries have developed pragmatic and effective responses to their drug problems. The international community must assist Afghanistan to develop similar responses if a major HIV crisis is to be avoided.”
Examples of these innovative policies are public health policies such as needle exchange programmes, substitution treatments, and safe injection sites.
ICOS also urged the international community to unify its efforts on prevention and education regarding drug consumption before the present Afghan drug consumption crisis runs further out of control. The international community must realize that the Afghan drug problem does not consist only of the opium production crisis.
ICOS will officially launch its addiction and treatment initiative at the “Kabul Symposium on Addiction Treatment in Afghanistan Responding to the Drug Crisis in Afghanistan” on December 3 to be held in Kabul.
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