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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While the Committee acknowledged the importance
of engaging with all countries in the
region, for the purposes of this project the
Asia–Pacific region was deemed to include
the countries involved in the ASEAN and
China Cooperative Operations in Response
to Dangerous Drugs (ACCORD), and those
Pacific nations of interest to AusAID .
• Myanmar
• Laos
• Thailand
• Cambodia
• Vietnam
• China
• Hong Kong
• Macau
• Brunei Darussalam
• Indonesia
• Malaysia
• Philippines
• Timor-Leste (East Timor)
• Fiji
• Papua New Guinea
• Samoa
• Solomon Islands
• Tonga
• Vanuatu
APDIC viewed the analysis as a three-part
project:
1 . a situation analysis and country profile
for countries in the Asia–Pacific region,
including an overview of drug policy,
policy processes and partnerships as well
as a review of the prevalence, epidemiology
and harms of drug use in each
country;
2 . an audit of Australian involvement in
responses to illicit drug issues in the
Asia–Pacific region including government,
non-government organisations
and individual contributions; and
3 . an audit of current illicit drug-related
activities being undertaken by other
national and international agencies and
funders in the region .
Core areas of inquiry
The project focused on unsanctioned use of
all illicit drugs and directly related harms,
with consideration of pharmaceutical drugs
limited to their intentional misuse .
The core areas of inquiry for each country
in this project were:
• contextual information for each of the
countries of interest
• historical (cultural or traditional) interactions
with illicit drugs
• the current illicit drug use situation
• illicit drug production and trade
• illicit drug-taking practices, prevalence,
risk factors, trends
• policy around illicit drugs in each of the
countries
• country responses to illicit drug issues
(including health, law enforcement, education)
• international involvement in the countries
of interest in relation to illicit drugs
• Australia’s involvement in the countries
of interest in relation to illicit drugs .
1 .2 Method
The project was desk-based; data sources for
the three components of the study — country
profiles, Australian involvement, and international
involvement — included published
and unpublished literature and information
from key informants and regional institutions
. The approach taken for this project
reflects the importance of local involvement
and ownership of the method, process and
outcome . Given that the methodology relied
on participation from key informants and
regional institutions, the quality, accuracy
and verification of the information collected
were dependent upon the cooperation of
those in the field .
The two major methods for accessing
information were literature review and key
informants .
Literature review
The literature was searched for information
relevant to the core areas of the project . The
review included:
• peer-reviewed articles using PubMed,
Medline and PsychInfo
• existing literature such as:
• The Hidden Epidemic Series — 1997,
2002
• UNODC’s 2004 regional study of
amphetamine-type substances (ATS)
• UNODC’s 2004 report on Drugs and
HIV/AIDS in Southeast Asia
• UNODC’s World Drug Report, 2004
• US State Department’s 2003 Narcotics
Control Report
• ‘grey’ literature — unpublished and inhouse
reports
• website searches — for example, CIA, US
State Department, UNODC, INCB
• internet lists — SEA–AIDS and the Association
for Social Anthropology in Oceania
email discussion group
• key informant suggestions for sources of
relevant information .
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Situational analysis of illicit drug issues and responses in the Asia–Pacific region