, April 27, Asia-Plus -- According to unofficial data based on a survey by Tajik Drug Control Agency (DCA), a number of drug-depended people in Tajikistan is some 5,000.   

Ms. Nazira Dodkhudoyeva, chief inspector with DCA department for control of legal circulation of drugs, noted that 1,500 people from various regions of the country had been polled during carrying out that survey.  

The survey’s results show that sometimes the first test of drugs by means of injecting may happen in the age of 16.  However, an average age for the first test of drugs by means of injecting is 22, according to Ms. Dodkhudoyeva.   

Women constitute some 15 percent of drug addicts in Tajikistan and 80 percent of all drug addicts in Tajikistan suffer from heroin-dependency.  Injecting drug users (IDUs) constitute 52 percent of drug users in the republic, Nazira Dodkhudoyeva said.  

According to figures provided by the DCA, 80 percent of HIV-infected registered in Tajikistan have contracted the disease through injecting use of drugs.