Illicit Drug use in the Asia Pacific Region - Burnet Institute

Situational analysis of illicit drug issues and responses in the Asia–Pacific region
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The first major changes to opium control
came in 1971 when the Royal Lao PDR
Government banned the use of opium . The
law permitted opium addicts from ethnic
minorities to apply for a permit allowing
them to cultivate poppies for personal use .
After the opium ban it was estimated that
there were about 50,000 dependent opium
users in Lao PDR . In early 1990 the Lao PDR
Government under the influence of the international
community began to implement
large-scale crop eradication and alternative
development projects aimed at reducing
opium supply and use . In 1996, the Government
also totally banned opium production
and use . By 1998 surveys of opium began
to report reduced use and production for the
first time in a decade . However, it appears
that a reduction in opium use is being
paralleled by an increase in the use of other
drugs such as ATS (Reid & Costigan, 2002;
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime,
2004b, 2004c) .
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
2%
0–20
8%
21–30
17%
31–40
20%
41–50
A6 .2 Prevalence of drug
use and profile of drug users
The overall number of drug users in Lao PDR
has not been estimated . However, figures
are routinely collected about opium use . A
number of studies have also been conducted
looking at drug use in school-attending
children, as well as service girls, unemployed
youth and disco clients in Vientiane .
Data from the 2004 UNODC Opium Survey
(United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime,
2004b) showed that daily opium use occurred
in 237 of the 388 villages surveyed . About 60
per cent of households surveyed (n = 13,775)
reported having at least one daily opium user .
Opium use is more concentrated in areas of
high opium production . The likelihood of
becoming a daily user of opium appeared to
increase with age .
51–60
61–70
71–80
81–90
Figure A6 .1 . Percentage of Laotian opium users undergoing treatment, by age
Source: UNODC Opium Survey 2004, page 15
19%
21%
9%
2%
0%
91+
According to official Lao government statistics,
the total number of opium users did not
change much from 2003 (n = 29,961) to 2004
(n = 28,030) . Of the 28,030 daily opium users,
only about 1400 were women . Daily opium
use occurs in about 2 .6 per cent of the total
population (United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime, 2004b) .
The first cases of amphetamine-type substance
(ATS) use were reported by the Provincial Committee
for Drug Control in the Bakeo Province
in 1998 . ATS use appeared to increase rapidly
and, within one year, the number of ATSrelated
cases treated at the Vientiane hospital
increased from 89 in 1999 to 210 in 2000 .
Reports from other rural areas suggested that
ATS users outnumbered or at least matched
the number of opium users by 2002 (United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2004c) .
A recent qualitative study conducted in Lao
PDR showed a normalisation of ATS (also
commonly known as yaba in Laos PDR) use
among some populations (Centre for Harm
Reduction, 2004) . The study suggested that
it was common for young people to take
yaba and that it was readily available . Yaba
was commonly used at bars and nightclubs
to facilitate social gatherings and to increase
energy levels . Participants in the study (n not
reported) acknowledged negative impacts of
yaba use including problems with families,
lifestyle issues and law enforcement . Yaba
users generally didn’t deeply consider why
they took the drug; however, some reported
the desire to try drugs, availability and peer
pressure made it difficult not to participate
in use .
With support from the American Government,
the Lao PDR Committee for Drug Control and
the Ministry for Eduction undertook widescale
urine tests in schools during 2003 . The
test results from these studies have not been
released, but according to media reports over
4000 cases were positive to ATS (Centre for
Harm Reduction, 2004) .
In 1999 and 2000, the Lao PDR Government,
with assistance from the UNODC,
surveyed 11,049 students at 43 educational
institutions in three urban areas: Vientiane,
Savannakhet and Luang Prabang . The
students ranged from 12 to 21 years of
age and were attending secondary school,
vocational school or university . The studies
showed that the most commonly used drugs
were prescription drugs, cannabis, ATS and
solvents . Lifetime prevalence of all drugs
ranged from 17 .5 per cent for students in
Vientiane, to 7 .6 per cent in Savannakhet
and 5 .5 per cent in Luang Prabang . Lifetime
prevalence of ATS was less but showed
a similar decrease across the sites (see
Table A6 .1 for figures) . Monthly use of any
drug ranged from 7 .2 per cent in Vientiane to
2 .5 per cent in Luang Prabang . The average
age of initiation into ATS use was about
16 years . The use of prescription drugs and
cannabis was also reported (United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime, 2004a) .
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Country profiles: Laos