There has been almost a three-fold increase in the number of drug-related offences in Fiji from 2016 to 2020, and in July of this year, there was a 42 percent increase compared to last year.
This was highlighted by Fiji National University’s Associate Professor of Psychiatry Dr Odille Chang during the Speaker’s debate.
Dr. Chang says in January of this year, there was an almost three-fold increase in the number of drug-related admissions to St. Giles Hospital compared to previous months.
She says a 2017 Fiji mental health survey showed that there was a prevalence rate of about 6 percent psychiatric morbidity and that the use of alcohol and other drugs was sitting at about 33 percent.
Dr. Chang further says Fiji's current drug epidemic has been the focus of public attention across the nation but it is not new and it is escalating.
Dr. Chang says it is important that communities take ownership of this issue and are actively involved in developing solutions that are culturally appropriate and contextualized to our local settings.
She says the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime have provided statistics showing 45 percent of the world's population engages in the use of alcohol while 22 percent engage in the use of tobacco and only 3.5 percent are using other drugs.
Dr. Chang says it is important to note that only 10 percent of those using alcohol and other drugs will go on to develop a substance use disorder and that legal substances are the ones that are used at much higher rates and are most harmful to people's health in terms of disability-adjusted life years which equals the number of years of life lost to early mortality.
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