Substance Use Disorder in South Asia: Challenges and Ways Ahead

Substance use is a major public health issue in the South Asian countries. Apart from the use of tobacco, alcohol, and betel nut, the use of illicit drugs such as cannabis and opioids is also prevalent in this region. Various challenges exist in terms of dealing with substance use issues. The key challenges include the limited availability of evidence-based treatments, limited workforce, stigma and discrimination, sociocultural acceptance of certain forms of substance use, criminalization of drug use, and poor policy support for harm reduction services. The policies in these countries are highly skewed towards supply reduction aspects, with less emphasis on demand and harm reduction. There is an urgent need for drug and alcohol policy reforms, scaling up the demand reduction services, provision of support to various harm reduction measures in principle, and capacity building of various healthcare professionals to deal with substance use issues more effectively Also, generation of regular research data focusing on various aspects of substance use, including the epidemiological aspects, in South Asian context is the need of the hour.