SANCA National celebrated Kick-Your-Habit campaign and commemorated the World Drug Day on June 26.
SANCA National celebrated the Kick-Your-Habit campaign and commemorated the World Drug Day on 26 June 2021.
The theme from UNODC this year is 'Share facts on drugs, safe lives'
SANCA raised concerns regarding the predicated 40% increase of substance misuse in Africa for 2030 in the World Drug Report released by the UNODC on the 24th of June 2021. There has been a global increase of 22% of people using a drug in the last year amounting to 227 Million people. 60 Million people were located in Africa contributing to 8,4% of the total amount. Out of this amount, 36 Million people have a drug use disorder (13%) out the overall people using and has increased to 0.6% since the last report. There seems to be a disconnect between the facts and real risks of substances and the public’s perception of it. The Covid pandemic accounted to over 100 Million job losses world-wide and there are concerns that this will increase the risks of people using substances. New drugs have been introduced that very little are known about the side effects and are unpredictable. Cannabis is still the most common drug used with 200 Million users and amounts to an 18% increase since the last report. The potency of cannabis has increase four fold since 2010 and the concerns are that youth attitudes are that it is less harmful and don’t acknowledge that it affects ones health. Opioids including pharmaceutical and/or synthetic opioids are still the most harmful and accounting for 70% of the disabilities and premature deaths reported. There is globally an increase of women using non-medical pharmaceutical medications. Only 7 out of 8 people still access effective treatment services globally.
The Addiction 2021 Online Conference, which will take place from July 21 to 23, 2021, aims to bring people together to find answers for drug demand reduction strategies in Africa. In doing so we can reduce the harms caused to the youth and curb the predicted 40% increase.
You can download all the various sections of the report at:
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