INJECTING REASON

Your editorial on the medically supervised safe-injection facility in
Vancouver, Canada,1 correctly noted that intravenous drug use accounts for
about one third of all AIDS and one half of hepatitis C cases in the USA.
The figures for women are much higher. The US Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention estimate that 57% of AIDS cases among American women are
linked to injection drug use or sex with partners who inject drugs
(http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pubs/facts/idu.htm). This easily preventable
public-health crisis is a direct result of zero-tolerance laws that
restrict access to clean syringes.

The good news is that Canada has already adopted many of the harmreduction
interventions first pioneered in Europe. The bad news is that Canada's
southern neighbour continues to use its superpower status to export a
dangerous moral crusade around the globe. I am confident that the
prospective cohort study conducted by Evan Wood and colleagues in Vancouver
will confirm what public-health advocates in North America have been saying
for years. Canada cannot afford to emulate the harm-maximisation approach
of the USA.

Robert Sharpe is a policy analyst at Common Sense for Drug Policy,
Washington, DC, USA

References 1 The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Injecting reason. Lancet
Infect Dis 2004; 4: 253.