05 May JAIL THE DRUG DEALERS, FREE THE USERS
The war on drugs hasn’t worked in Thailand and it hasn’t worked at the global level. During the past 18 years the incidence of HIV infection among injecting drug users has remained at a shocking level of around 40%.
Because the drug problem in Thailand is so visible and unacceptable to the public, every government has to put on a show of toughness to get votes. Unfortunately it is not the big drug dealers who are affected by the various “wars on drugs” but rather the unfortunate drug users.
The UK drug policy coalition “Count the Costs” (countthecosts.org) states that: “The war on drugs creates massive costs, resulting from the enforcement-led approach that puts organised crime in control of the trade.”
With the global HIV/Aids epidemic has come the realisation that criminalisation of drug users has been an important contributing factor to the spread of HIV, as it has prevented drug users from accessing Aids education and health services.
It has also hampered efforts to encourage injecting drug users to use clean needles and syringes rather than sharing injecting equipment with others.
In countries with strong harm reduction programmes, injecting drug users are encouraged to make use of many kinds of HIV prevention services such as needle and syringe exchange facilities, drug-injecting centres and long-term methadone substitution