Epidemiology of drug use and abuse:final report of a pilot study of Nairobi city and Kyaume sublocation Kenya

Abstract

This study was prompted by one main consideration; namely, that the non-medical use of drugs is increasingly seen - rightly or wrongly - as a major social and public health problem in Kenya, affecting not only the users/abusers themselves but also their families and society as a whole. In other words, what the WHO has been saying for. over a decade about trends in the world as a whole is seen to be increasingly reflected in the specific case of Kenya. Our concern was that the precise character and magnitude of the drug problem in Kenya has yet to be adequately documented. Much of what now passes for 'hard' evidence seems to us little more than guesswork. At best, the question of ho uses/ abuses what drug type in Kenya, to what extent and in what situation has only partially been addressed - often with poorly developed research tools.