Vietnam

This section contains an expanded situation analysis, and details about the Vietnam Country Flexible Program. 

Vietnam is located in South-eastern Asia and borders China, Laos and Cambodia. Due to its location, Vietnam has been an important transit country for illicit drug trade. Most heroin and some opium enter Vietnam from the Golden Triangle, either from Thailand or Laos. The production and stock-pilling of ATS are relatively new practices.

In Vietnam, the drug of choice is heroin among youth, particularly in urban areas while opium remains popular among the elderly and ethnic minority groups in rural areas and the north-west regions. Methamphetamine and ecstasy (thuoc lac) use is increasing and not confined to the youth but expanding to the general population. 

Injection remains the favoured method of administration of heroin. Official reports indicate there are 178,000 IDUs registered with local government agencies, or with the prison system. Although assessments of the actual number of drug users vary, there is agreement that drug use is increasing and much more widespread than registered-user estimates. The number of female drug users who inject is also growing and of significant concern.

The greatest risk associated with IDU in Vietnam is HIV. About 60 per cent of all people living with HIV in Vietnam have histories of injecting drugs. It is estimated that about 40-80 per cent of all IDUs in some provinces have HIV.  

At the policy level, Vietnam has moved towards developing strong legal and policy frameworks which support harm reduction approaches. Until recently, harm reduction activities targeting populations at key risk (IDUs and SWs) have faced legal impediments which resulted in limiting scale-up of interventions.

While the Government of Vietnam should be commended on passing the law on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control which contains explicit provisions on harm reduction, implementation remains challenging with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs unclear of roles and responsibilities. 

At the local level, there is a continuing reliance on punitive approaches to drug users including arrest and incarceration in mandatory rehabilitation centres. Stigma and discrimination towards IDU remains a serious implementation barrier.

 
Map of Vietnam. Source: Google Maps