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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A14 . Pacific overview
Papua New Guinea, Fiji,
Solomon Islands, Vanuatu,
Samoa, and Tonga
This overview is a synthesis of information
reported by key informants, group interview
participants, regional overviews undertaken
by the United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime (UNODC) and the United States Drug
Enforcement Agency, and other published
documents . There are large gaps in publicly
available documentation in relation to illicit
drug use in the Pacific . There are no national
population estimates for drug use in the
Pacific . Moreover, concerted investigations
to define the extent of the drug use, such
as in-country rapid assessments, have not
been undertaken in the last five years . For
this reason, this desk-based situational
analysis has taken an extremely conservative
approach to the reporting of illicit drug use
issues and the responses being undertaken
in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands,
Vanuatu, Samoa and Tonga .
Geography
The Pacific Islands comprise a group of 22
small states (14 independent nations, 7
territories, 1 commonwealth) and numerous
uninhabited islands . The area occupied by
the islands ranges from 10,000 kilometres
east–west and 5000 kilometres north–south .
An estimated 7500 to 10,000 remote islands
lie within this area (Central Intelligence
Agency, 2004; United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime, 2003) .
With the exception of Papua New Guinea,
the majority of the Pacific countries are short
of land and have few exploitable natural
resources . Fertile, arable and well-mineralised
soils are limited to the larger mountainous
volcanic land masses of the south-west
region (Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands,
New Caledonia, Fiji and Vanuatu) (Central
Intelligence Agency, 2004; United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime, 2003) .
Population
The Pacific is a region of great ethnic, social
and cultural diversity, with a population
of 7 .6 million (2000 estimate) and more
than 1200 languages and dialects (Nejo,
2001) . Most of the countries in the Pacific
share similar demographic attributes, a
young population, low mortality and a
highly mobile population and labour force
(Central Intelligence Agency, 2004) . In the
Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and
Vanuatu approximately 40 per cent of
the population is under 15 years of age
(Central Intelligence Agency, 2004) . People
in the Pacific live primarily in rural areas: in
Melanesian countries such as Papua New
Guinea, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands, over
80 per cent of the population live in isolated
villages and outer island communities, while
other countries such as Kiribati and Fiji have
nearly half the population in urban centres .
Rural–urban drift is, however, on the increase
in many countries (Nejo, 2001) .
Limited and unreliable data exist on the unemployment
situation in the Pacific countries .
Nevertheless, other social indicators and key
informants suggest that there is a large unemployed
youth labour force (Central Intelligence
Agency, 2004; Nejo, 2001) . The lack of sense
of hope and purpose stemming from the lack
of employment or education opportunities
encourages risk-taking behaviour linked to
drug and alcohol abuse .
Literacy rates are quite high in some areas
of the Pacific compared to other developing
countries (Central Intelligence Agency, 2004;
Nejo, 2001) . In Fiji, Vanuatu and Tonga rates
of literacy are approximately 95 per cent .
In larger Melanesian countries where basic
education is not widely available, literacy
rates vary from 20 to 64 per cent . Less than
half of the Pacific Island youth complete
secondary school (15–19 years of age) and
only 1–5 per cent complete some form
of tertiary education (Central Intelligence
Agency, 2004; Nejo, 2001) .
Politics and economy
Many of the countries obtained independence
from their colonisers only in the last 30
years . Some, such as French Polynesia and
New Caledonia, are still governed by distant
state powers . Thus, the islands have inherited
a range of legal and judicial systems that
impede the establishment of regional policies
on drug control (Central Intelligence Agency,
2004; Nejo, 2001) .
Reliable economic data are unavailable
for Pacific countries . However, indications
are that the economic development of
most of the Pacific Islands is hindered by
the geographical factors of the area: small
size, paucity of natural resources, isolation
from foreign markets, periodic devastation
from natural disasters, and inadequate infrastructure
(Central Intelligence Agency, 2004;
Nejo, 2001) .
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Country profiles: Pacific overview