Pubdate: Fri, 02 Jul 2004
Source: Nation, The (Thailand)
Copyright: 2004 Nation Multimedia Group
Contact:  http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1963
Author: Arthit Khwankhom
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

HIV/NARCOTICS: MOVE TO HELP IV DRUG ABUSERS

Govt Puts On More Caring Face As Aids Conference Nears

To counter the high HIV infection rate among intravenous drug users - as 
well as foreign accusations of human-rights violations during the country's 
war on drugs - the government will step up its harm-reduction programme to 
help this group of people overcome problems related to substance abuse as 
well as HIV.

The search for injecting drug users would be intensified at the highest 
level, while the methadone maintenance programme and treatments for HIV, 
including the application of anti-retroviral drugs, will be fully provided 
for intravenous drug addicts, Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan 
said yesterday.

Sudarat said some websites of overseas non-governmental organisations had 
criticised the country's campaign to eradicate illicit drugs, and the 
government feared they would revive the issue to discredit the country 
during the international Aids conference.

The accusations of human-rights violations are "total nonsense and 
malicious", she said, adding that the government's official explanations 
from time to time in response to those "groundless" accusations had been 
completely ignored.

The state's war on drugs is totally free of discrimination and does not 
violate the human rights of drug users, Sudarat said. The country has even 
had in place since last year a law categorising drug users as patients 
needing proper rehabilitation.

"We have never ever treated drug abuse as a kind of crime as is endlessly 
insinuated, but as an illness," she said.

As part of the harm-reduction scheme some 10,000 intravenous drug takers 
have been brought into the methadone maintenance programme under the new 
law, she said.

The harm-reduction programme is a collaboration of the Public Health 
Ministry, the Justice Ministry, the Narcotics Control Board, the United 
Nations Programme on HIV/Aids and local Aids NGOs. The government would use 
the opportunity presented by hosting the Aids conference to reiterate its 
stance and clarify the ways that people injecting drugs are actually being 
treated in this country, Sudarat said.

The harm-reduction programme was recently extended to drug users in prisons 
and juvenile detention centres, said Sompong Chareonsuk, UNAids' country 
programme adviser.

The number of intravenous drug users has slightly increased as an adverse 
effect of the war on drugs, conceded Chitra Lubpairee, deputy 
secretary-general of the Narcotics Control Board.
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