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The AIDS Crisis and Drug Policy



By Suzanne Wills

Drug Policy Chair

December 1, 2001 was World AIDS Day. Publicity focused on the tragedy and threat of this disease, 60 million infected, 22 million dead and no end in sight. Little was said about the United States' role in perpetuating this crisis.

Heroin use is sweeping the undeveloped world, up 300% since 1990. Unsterile needles are used hundreds of times, the perfect way to spread blood borne viruses. Dozens of cities in Asia and now in South America, Africa and Eastern Europe have gone from having no HIV infection among injecting drug users to having 80% infected 18 months later. Female sexual partners are infected next, then their infants. Then it's too late. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have pledged to commit unlimited funds to fighting AIDS in poor countries. Dr. Ernest Drucker, Professor of Epidemiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and an expert in the global AIDS crisis, maintains that unlimited funds are not needed. Additional outbreaks can be stopped for less than $1 per person. The key is to intervene early and focus on the unsterile injection of heroin. Even after adding the cost of health care workers a population of a million people can be protected for less than $1 million by providing sterile needles to addicts.

Global drug policy is largely governed by the United Nations Drug Control Program, which is based in Vienna but is controlled by the United States. UNDCP does not even mention needle exchange programs in its AIDS prevention documents. The United States, influenced primarily by Sen. Jesse Helms, forbids the use of any of its United Nations contributions for sterile injecting equipment for addicts. This is in direct contradiction to American Medical Association recommendations which call for extensive use of needle exchange programs. In the U. S. where needle exchange programs are for the most part illegal the rate of HIV infection among injecting drug users is 36%. In The Netherlands where there is a needle exchange in every police station the rate of infection among injecting drug users is 4%.

A representative of the Community AIDS Response in South Africa has said, "We need a mighty miracle." We don't need a miracle. We need a rational drug policy.

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