THERE has been an increase in the number of women who use and inject drugs in Zimbabwe over the years owing to a myriad of factors, chief among them being unemployment, poverty among a host of other issues.
By Michael Gwarisa
This has been revealed by the Final Situation Assessment report of drug use in five provinces to inform HIV and TB programming for people who use drugs. The research was conducted by the Zimbabwe Civil Liberties and Drug Network (ZCLDN), the National AIDS Council (NAC) and the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) through funding from the Global Fund and the UNAIDS.
According to the report, the total sample of men who use drugs constitutes majority of drug users at 58.47 percent while women are at 40.59 percent. However, in terms of people injecting drugs as a percentage of their sub-group, women make up 53,25 percent while men constitute 28.23 percent.
Commenting on the results, Wilson Box, the Chief Executive Officer for ZCLDN said economic vulnerabilities had pushed more women into drug and substance misuse.
You find that majority of the women who use drugs are from sub-groups such as sex workers, women in mining and farming communities, mining communities, sex workers, women from the LGBTIQ community. Women Use drugs especially in Mt Darwin, Mvurwi and Bulawayo and Manicaland due to idleness.
“There is no employment so most end up resorting to sex work since it’s the cheapest and easiest way of getting out of poverty plus availability of those drugs,” said Box.
Mr Box added that proximity to boarders for places like Mt Darwin, Manicaland, and the spill overs from South Africa in Bulawayo was also another contributing factor to the increased drug use. Statistics from Sally Mugabe Hospital Psychiatric unit also indicate that there has been an increase in drug misuse related admissions in their unit especially since the COVOD-19 period. Between January and April 2021, out of 75admissions recorded, 72 were males and three were females. February, 72, 71 were males and one was a female. In March 82. Out of 82, 81 were males, and one was a female. April it was 90. Of the 90, 66 were males, 24 females.
Zimbabwe is currently experiencing a challenge with drug use. This challenge is a cross-cutting issue affecting youthful populations in their diversity including key and vulnerable population groups. It is every nation’s dream to have ample opportunities for youth to flourish, so they don’t get desperate and resort to drugs.
According to the Drug situation report, women who use drugs face additional vulnerabilities.
“An earlier community engagement19 indicated that Zimbabwean women who use drugs face domestic gender-based violence (GBV) and are victim to physical and sexual abuse. In the same study, women who use drugs also reported being sexually assaulted and intimidated by the police, and there are cases when women who use drugs are being denied their parental rights.
“Those findings fit into and confirm trends in the wider southern African region, as has been documented by ARASA; women tend to have less power in their relationships than men, making them more vulnerable to domestic and sexual violence; they also tend to have less economic security than men and are often poorer; besides, women who use drugs face more stigma and discrimination than men, being viewed as an anomaly; and they tend to be treated harsher than their male counterparts once they are arrested. All this leads to high levels of mental health problems and self-stigma, limited access to health services and consequently more negative health outcomes20. In Zimbabwe, no gender-sensitive services for women who use drugs are currently available.”
The survey counted 293 participants distributed across five provinces: Bulawayo, Harare, Manicaland, Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland West. Participants were on average 30.92 years old (median27=30), with the youngest being 18 and the oldest 63 years old. The vast majority (96.59%) identified as African-Black in the survey. 69.92 percent were male, 25.94 percent female and 4.45 percent identified as transsexual or an “other” gender. The most common sexual orientation was heterosexual (85.3 percent) with homosexuality (8.54 percent) and bi-sexuality (5.12 percent) following.
Findings from the study also show that majority of drug users were unemployed or employed in the informal sector. In all provinces except Harare, more than 40 percent of participants reported occasional jobs as their main source of income29. The second most often mentioned source was small-scale owned business (24.91 percent of the total sample).
“In Harare the most often mentioned source of income was sex work (36.07 percent); the higher rate in this province is linked to the mobilisation strategy, which included recruitment of respondents in an area where sex work takes place. Sex work was the third most often mentioned source of income in Mashonaland Central (18.64 percent) and the fourth in Mashonaland West (15.25 percent).
“Bulawayo (16.98 percent) and Mashonaland Central (13.56 percent) had the highest number of participants reporting not to be earning any money. 7.17 percent of all participants mentioned selling drugs as a source of income. Though this may look like a relatively small number, it shows that there is a group30, who are selling drugs to finance their own habit,” said the report.
The types of substances used in the past month mostly followed the pattern found for the past year use, with the most accentuated difference being in the use of cough syrup in the past month when compared to the past year. For cough syrup and (legal and illegal) alcohol, reported daily use was above 50 percent.
A large proportion of those using crystal meth (42.57 percent) made daily use of the substance, and another 36.64% declared to use it at least two or three times a week. In the case of pharmaceuticals, 57.89% reported using them two or three times a week, and 21.05 percent used it daily. These general trends were similar across the provinces.
Regarding routes of administration (RoA) of substances, both cannabis and skunk were mostly smoked in a joint (respectively 65 percent and 81 percent) or smoked from foil (29 percent and 19 percent); a few others (5 percent and 3 percent) declared to swallow the substance. Crystal meth was mostly smoked from a (makeshift) pipe33 (58 percent), smoked in a joint (15 percent), or swallowed (13 percent). Nevertheless, 12 percent reported injection as the main route of administration for crystal meth in the past month.
Injection was the main route of administration for pharmaceuticals (for 51 percent of the sample); swallowing was the second most common RoA (42 percent).
