Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 13, 2005

ISLAMABAD, 13 Dec 2005 (IRIN/PLUSNEWS) - The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is preparing to launch a drug abuse and HIV/AIDS prevention programme in Pakistani prisons by early 2006.

"Through this pilot project, UNODC intends to introduce drug abuse and HIV/AIDS prevention services for prisons in Pakistan on a sustainable basis," Vincent McClean, Country Representative of UNODC, said in a project workshop in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Tuesday.

With an initial cost of about US $491,000, this three-year pilot project aims to counter the problem of drug abuse and the spread of HIV/AIDS in four selected prisons through interventions enabling prisoners to make their own informed choices vis-a-vis drug abuse, prison life, HIV/AIDS and their own future.

The programme will also improve literacy and vocational skills training opportunities for some 2,000 prisoners, providing them with better chances of employment on release.

Pakistan's narcotics minister, Ghous Bux Mehar, told the workshop that there were 500,000 chronic heroin and injecting drug users in Pakistan, according to a national assessment conducted in 2000.

"These figures would suggest that Pakistan has one of the highest rates of heroin abuse in the world," said Maher. The study also showed that cannabis type drugs like hashish, were the drugs most often reported in common use, followed by heroin, alcohol and tranquillisers, he added.

However, what is a serious problem in the country at large is magnified in its prisons. Due to overcrowding, close confinement, violence, tension and fear, inadequate health facilities, boredom, lack of activity and long prison sentences, drug abuse is widespread, according to experts, which facilitates the spread of HIV and other blood-borne diseases among prisoners.

At the same time, according to UNODC, drug use and homosexual behaviour are rife in most of Pakistan's prisons and sex is often coerced and unprotected.

In about 90 prisons across the country originally designed for a prison population of only 35,000, there are approximately 85,000 inmates who have very limited access to education, vocational training and recreational services.

In 2003, in central Larkana district's prison in southern Sindh province, 29 intravenous drug users (IDUs) were found to be HIV positive out of 210 randomly tested. While earlier this year, another study conducted by the National HIV/AIDS Control Programme revealed that 94 out of 402 IDUs tested randomly on the streets of the southern port city of Karachi, were found HIV positive.

Once the pilot project is completed, it is expected to serve as a model for the implementation of similar action in other prisons on a larger scale, the narcotics minister said.

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