‘20,000 drug injecting users in city’

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The News - An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 injecting drug users (IDUs) live in the city, with the statistic propelling Karachi to the apex of the global list of cities with the highest incidence of drug abuse, said Pakistan Society President Dr Saleem Azam while addressing a press conference on Friday at the Karachi Press Club (KPC).

The press conference was organised in connection with the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which is being observed across the world today. Azam said that more than 90 per cent of children and adolescents who live on the streets are using drugs, with opiates being mostly consumed. He said that there are approximately 630,000 opiate users in Pakistan, which translates into 0.7 per cent of the population aged between 15 and 64; approximately 480,000 (77 per cent) of these addicts are heroin users.

“In Sindh, there are about 87,000 opiate users, out of whom some 44,000 are IDUs. Another problematic aspect is that only 30 per cent of the IDUs in Sindh use new syringes, while the other 70 per cent consume drugs in the presence of others friends. This promotes sharing of syringes, which resultantly leads to blood diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis-C,” Azam said.

The doctor pointed out that the overall HIV prevalence in Sindh was 27.3 per cent, while 23 per cent of IDUs in Karachi are HIV positive. “The incidence of HIV varies from town to town; in six of the 18 towns, the prevalence of HIV has shot up to 54 per cent,” he said. 

Azam claimed that the prevalence of HIV in Keamari Town stood at 54 per cent; in Saddar Town at 50 per cent, and 46 per cent in Jamshed Town. “These towns were not covered by the World Bank’s financial and technical initiative,” he narrated. 

Azam added that adulteration in heroin available on the street, as well as ease of accessibility to heroin-like chemicals available in a form fit only for injecting, are crucial in explaining why there has been an “alarming” change in drug-dependent people shifting to injecting drugs (as opposed to oral consumption).