DRUG LAWS HAMSTRING UN FORUM ON AIDS

Canadian Thinks Serious Problem Of Drug Use Won't Be Addressed

The United Nations special assembly on HIV/AIDS will look at many
aspects of the global health crisis, but experts fear there won't be
enough emphasis on the link between intravenous drug use (IDU) and the
spread of HIV, especially because it would mean addressing the world's
drug laws. "They've finally caught on to the severity of the
pandemic," says Diane Riley, a Canadian and non-governmental
organization delegate on the board of UNAIDS, the UN body overseeing
the fight against HIV/AIDS. "But it's likely that the soaring
incidence of HIV among drug users will not be a main topic on the agenda."

By the end of May 1999, 114 countries and territories had reported HIV
associated with IDU, compared with 52 in 1992, says Ms. Riley. And HIV
has grown more rapidly among IDUs than in any other group, especially
in Asia, Eastern Europe and South America.

In Canada, the proportion of reported AIDS cases attributed to IDU
increased from 8.3 per cent in 1995 to 21.7 per cent in 2000. "HIV
probably wouldn't be a pandemic if it were not for the drugs
connection," says Ms. Riley. "We have to wake up and realize what's
happening."

Ms. Riley is with the International Harm Reduction Association, which
promotes alternative policies and programs to current drug laws, which
it sees as the real cause of harm, as opposed to the drugs themselves.
Harm reduction includes syringe exchange, substitution therapy such as
methadone for heroin addicts, explicit education programs in schools,
safe injecting sites and de facto decriminalization of marijuana.

The problem, says Eugene Oscapella, an Ottawa-based lawyer and one of
the founders of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, is that harm
reduction programs are illegal according to many drug laws around the
world, especially those of the influential U.S., even though they
would help stemthe spread of HIV.

"Many of the problems we associate with drugs really flow from drug
prohibition," he says. Prohibition fuels the black market for drugs,
resulting in artificially inflated drug prices. Therefore, addicts
looking for the biggest bang for their buck often turn to injecting.
Needle exchanges are not available or legal in most states. And
because a syringe is illegal in Canada if it has drug remnants in it,
some drug users are afraid to bring in their dirty needles. And with
so few "safe places" to shoot up, shooting galleries, often run by
drug dealers, become the venue of choice, where needles and cleaning
bowls are often shared. To fund their addictions, many IDUs turn to
prostitution, which only serves to increase the risk of spreading HIV.
Furthermore, many drug users end up in prison, where drug use is
rampant and clean needles are scarce. "The futility of prohibition is
seen clearly within prisons," says Mr. Oscapella. "Even when
incarcerated for 24 hours a day, people will still have access to
drugs and still do drugs." Even when users seek help, the abstinence
model of treatment is what they face.

In contrast, substitution therapy can stabilize a user's life. But the
real bonus in the fight against HIV is that it shifts the user away
from injecting.

In Britain, the spread of HIV is deemed a greater danger to individual
and public health than drug misuse. It has one of the most progressive
substitution therapy programs in the world and has a national average
of only one per cent HIV infection in injection drug users.

Ms. Riley believes that once people realize the HIV/AIDS pandemic is
not that far from their own back yard, attitudes will change. "The
level of denial is astounding," she says. "But acceptance will happen.
Unfortunately, we're just at the beginning of the pandemic. It'll take
100 million deaths before people deal with it."