Vienna | Wednesday
THE spread of HIV and Aids looks likely to accelerate further in parts of Africa with the spread of injected heroin use, especially among younger people, a UN drugs board warned on Wednesday.
A growing number of young men and women across Africa are starting to abuse drugs at ever younger ages, the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said in its annual report, published in Vienna on Wednesday.
The number of people injecting heroin in South Africa has climbed by 40% in the past three years, the INCB reported.
“In view of the major economic, political and social problems faced by many African countries, there is a risk that unemployed youth and the urban and rural poor will be further exposed to drug abuse and experience a further deterioration of their situation as a result of drug abuse,” the report said.
In eastern, western and southern Africa, more drug users are injecting heroin, “which will contribute to the further spreading of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/Aids infection, which is already widespread in those sub-regions,” the board warned.
Twenty-two percent of cannabis seizures across the world took place in Africa, the INCB report said, adding that some 60 to 70% of cannabis seized in Europe came from Morocco.
The abuse of crack cocaine is growing faster than the abuse of any other drug in South Africa because it has become more affordable, and the abuse of Ecstasy and MDMA is also spreading in the country, the report said.
Cocaine abuse has increased significantly in Angola, where cocaine is shipped from Brazil, and Namibia, through which it is trafficked by roads on its way to South Africa, it reported. – AFP