BY VANESSA GONYE
EXCESSIVE drug use has been cited as compromising HIV management in Zimbabwe as drugs often lead to reckless behaviour.
Due to unemployment and other problems including poverty, the rate of drug use has skyrocketed, with the menace fast becoming a lead social ill that needs urgent action.
Addressing a National Aids Council (NAC)-organised media workshop in Chinhoyi on Wednesday, Zimbabwe Civil Liberties and Drug Network executive director Wilson Box said due to the reckless behaviour associated with drug use, it is highly likely that HIV will take time to manage.
“Altered judgment and inhibition caused by illicit drug use lead people to engage in impulsive and unsafe behaviours leading to the spread of HIV and Aids,” Box said.
He said because drug users will be under influence, they tend to engage in risky behaviour unknowingly, with their negligent lifestyle making it more difficult to take measures to reduce the further spread of the virus.
“Some of the drug users, while taking drugs, share one needle amongst a number of people who do not know their status.”
He said treatment of drug users was key in fighting HIV and Aids.
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Box urged the government to consider availing affordable rehabilitation centres for drug users as a step towards reducing the abuse of drugs and its effects.
“We do not have public rehab centres and the private centres are expensive with most charging a minimum of US$500. There is also a need to act on the mushrooming drug bases around the country,” he said.
Responding to the issue of drug abuse, Health and Child Care deputy minister John Mangwiro said the government is focused on ending the scourge.
He, however, said it was difficult to apprehend those selling drugs as most were working with foreign drug lords.
“We are moving towards making sure that we contain this new problem. As a government, we are taking it seriously, it is affecting us. We are aware it is also affecting students in schools,” he said.
Mangwiro said the government should work on increasing job opportunities as a way of curbing excessive drug use.
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