JOHANNESBURG - The global drug trade is evolving, and experts warn efforts to combat it must evolve just as fast.
But in South Africa, even the most basic data on drug use is unreliable.
Experts say that without proper data, policies cannot be formulated.
Networking HIV and AIDS Community of Southern Africa’s (NACOSA) Yolaan Andrews said national data could be strengthened.
“We need to understand more particularly how many people are using substances. Some of the data shows that 1-20 people in SA reported using substances and more than 13% of young people reported using substances at least once. But our data can be strengthened to understand what services are needed and to what extent.
“So there are two things, one is that NACOSA is a principal recipient of the adolescent grant, but we have implemented programmes as well with people who use drugs and sex workers.
“We found that decentralizing services is a good entry point to gather evidence-based data on interventions and the need among young people, so we need to be able to make these entry points available at clinics and community regions, so we can better feed into the national department's data points in terms of what the prevalence is and what types of drugs are being used."