DRUG WAR CHRONICLE: On Tuesday, as the UN’s global drug prohibition bureaucracy marked its annual International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking and UN Office on Drugs and Crime head Yuri Fedotov blamed hard drug use for “bringing misery to thousands of people, insecurity, and the spread of HIV,” a group of leading international voices offered a starkly contrasting perspective, arguing instead that is the failures and consequences of global drug prohibition that are driving the spread of HIV/AIDS and other blood-borne diseases among drug users….
According to the report, drug prohibition and the criminalization of drug users spurs the spread of HIV through the following means:
- Fear of arrest drives persons who use drugs underground, away from HIV testing and HIV prevention services and into high-risk environments.
- Restrictions on provision of sterile syringes to drug users result in increased syringe sharing.
- Prohibitions or restrictions on opioid substitution therapy and other evidence-based treatment result in untreated addiction and avoidable HIV risk behavior.
- Deficient conditions and lack of HIV prevention measures in prison lead to HIV outbreaks among incarcerated drug users.
- Disruptions of HIV antiretroviral therapy result in elevated HIV viral load and subsequent HIV transmission and increased antiretroviral resistance.
- Limited public funds are wasted on harmful and ineffective drug law enforcement efforts instead of being invested in proven HIV prevention strategies. … (more)
EDITOR: Perhaps some readers will pass the above along to Lancaster General Health which continues to deny funding to the Urban League to establish a syringe exchange here in Lancaster.
