Illicit Drug use in the Asia Pacific Region - Burnet Institute

Situational analysis of illicit drug issues and responses in the Asia–Pacific region
viii
Third, policy development concerning illicit
drugs has not kept pace with the development
of the drug trade or with changing patterns
of drug consumption in the regions . Policy
has generally been reactive, and on the whole
uninformed by evidence or understanding
of the phenomena involved . The policy
approaches have commonly proved less than
effective, to the detriment of approaches that
promise more impact . This generally happens
against a backdrop of inadequate public
debate, around a subject that is politically contentious,
domestically and internationally .
In terms of responses to illicit drug use, it is
apparent that demand reduction approaches
across the Asian region are in their infancy,
not keeping pace with the rapid development
of drug use trends and patterns, and
not adequately building on evidence of
effectiveness . Exploration of effective modes
of drug treatment is just beginning across
Asia, though pilot programs, often shortlived,
have been in existence for many years .
Much reliance is still placed on approaches
for which there is little evidence of effectiveness,
such as traditional medicines and ‘boot
camp’-style rehabilitation centres, or even
imprisonment . Reliance is also placed by
national authorities on public awareness
campaigns against the use of drugs, and by
international bodies on campaigns such as
‘life skills education’ in schools .
For national agencies, there is little access
to reliable and accurate information about
illicit drugs, the antecedents of their use,
and effective prevention and treatment
approaches .
Lastly, there has been little linkage of agendas
concerning illicit drugs with other major
social and economic development in policy
or programmatic terms .
Illicit drug issues
and responses in Asia
Vulnerabilities to illicit
drug production and use
Defining and identifying vulnerability of a
particular population to involvement in illicit
drug production, trafficking or use are not
necessarily straightforward processes . However,
there are a number of factors common to
situations where there have been increases in
illicit drug production or use . These include:
• rapid economic growth, with a burgeoning
middle-class youth population, and with
internal migration, and resultant cashedup
migrant labour populations away from
their homes;
• inequitable distribution of the benefits of
such growth, with increased gaps between
rich and poor, and differential ability to
participate in the formal economy;
• political upheaval, with resultant external
migration, creating both human flows
for drug trafficking and disenfranchised
populations without access to the formal
economy;
• inadvertent results of law enforcement
and interdiction operations, moving drug
trafficking routes, especially overland
cross-border and coastal, to involve new
populations;
• the impact of development programs,
leading to all the above factors;
• corruption, and its role in the maintenance
of power among ruling political elites;
• poverty and political disenfranchisement,
operating through the above processes or
on their own .
All these factors are variably present and
often growing in Asia and the Pacific . The
Asian region has been undergoing massive
change over the last few decades: socially,
economically and often politically . In almost
all nations reviewed in this report there have
been sizeable external migrations and/or the
continuous influx of individuals — often men
as labourers and women as sex workers — and
families from rural areas to the cities . The
extent of rapid urbanisation and resultant
internal migration varies, but where they
occur, such changes often lead to increased
inequitable access to new wealth, and
substantial strains on urban services .
Human development indices have improved
on average for many in the Asian and Pacific
regions, but with economic growth the gaps
between the rich and poor have widened significantly
over the years, and some sectors in
society are more vulnerable than others . The
most afflicted are the urban poor: a rise in the
number of individuals and families living in
urban slums with impoverished lives is often
the inevitable outcome . This is fertile ground
for involvement in illicit drugs: trafficking and
dealing are ways of accessing the informal
economy when access to the formal economy
is barred; as well as using drugs to ease the
experience of impoverishment .
Ethnic minority communities in border regions
of China, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam
and elsewhere (e .g . West Papua) carry many
of these factors enhancing vulnerability . They
are most often effectively disenfranchised,
marginalised, living precariously and with the
potential to slip into absolute poverty, if not
in this state already . In China, for example,
ethnic minorities make up only 7 per cent of
the total population, but represent 40 per cent
of China’s poor . The lack of sustainable
alternative development for these minority
populations has often led to dependence on
the cultivation and use of opium, evolving
over time to the production and consumption
of heroin . Such consumption has most often
been via high-risk injecting practices: as a
result, many ethnic communities in Asia have
been among the hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS
and subsequent tuberculosis epidemics from
the 1990s .
This review found a population age structure
throughout all countries in the region that
is heavily weighted towards young people,
while at the same time youth unemployment
and under-employment are high: with rapid
economic development, two youth populations
at risk of illicit drug use are thereby
created — those with money, and those with
nothing .
In terms of availability of illicit drugs, most
countries of Asia are either producing
countries or on major transit or trafficking
routes from producers to consumer nations .
Many of those countries reviewed have a close
geographical proximity to the Golden Triangle
area, the major producing area for opiates
and, since 1996–97, of amphetamine-type
substances (ATS) . The remainder are generally
on trafficking routes for these drugs to the
consuming populations — increasingly these
are within the region, though much is still
exported . The increased production of ATS
in Golden Triangle countries has latterly been
matched by a reduction in the production
and supply of opiates; increasingly, transit
countries for ATS are becoming producers .
ix
Executive summary