HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Content-Type: text/html
US Cash Threat to AIDS War
Pubdate: Sun, 06 Feb 2005
Source: Observer, The (UK)
Copyright: 2005 The Observer
Contact: http://www.observer.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/315
Author: Martin Bright, Home Affairs Editor, The Observer
Cited: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime http://www.unodc.org/unodc/
Cited: Commission on Narcotic Drugs http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/cnd.html
Cited: Transform Drug Policy Foundation http://www.tdpf.org.uk/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)
US CASH THREAT TO AIDS WAR
The United Nations agency responsible for the global fight against drugs
has been forced to abandon its campaign to reduce Aids infection by giving
clean needles to heroin addicts after threats by America to end its
funding, The Observer can reveal.
The Bush administration opposes any programme that appears to condone the
continued use of drugs, and wants the UN to seek abstention by users,
combined with an end to narcotics production.
Drug experts believe that if the UN shelved its so-called 'harm reduction'
strategy in favour of an outright war on drugs, it could contribute to a
rise in the rate of infection with HIV/Aids through shared needles and
unsafe sex, as well as increasing the number of addicts.
Correspondence seen by The Observer shows that on 10 November 2004, Antonio
Maria Costa, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime (UNODC) held a meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State Robert
Charles to discuss the Bush administration's concerns about the direction
the UN was taking.
A leaked letter sent by Costa the next day shows him agreeing to demands to
expunge references about harm reduction from UNODC literature and statements.
'On the the general issue of "harm reduction", I share your concern. Under
the guise of "harm reduction", there are people working disingenuously to
alter the world's opposition to drugs. These people can misuse our
well-intentioned statements for their own agenda, and this we cannot allow.
'Accordingly, as we discussed in our meeting, we are reviewing all our
statements, both printed and electronic, and will be even more vigilant in
the future.'
Costa goes on to clarify the UN agency's position on needle exchanges,
where addicts are given clean injecting equipment to minimise the risk of
infection from HIV and and hepatitis. In words that have caused alarm among
drug treatment experts, Costa wrote: 'We neither endorse needle exchanges
as a solution for drug abuse, nor support public statements advocating such
practices.'
The issue will come to head at next month's meeting in Vienna of the
Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the UN's central policy-making body on drugs.
Danny Kushlick, director of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation said: 'The
evidence for the success of harm reduction in reducing HIV and AIDS among
injecting drug users is unquestioned. It has taken decades to build harm
reduction into the core of international drug programmes and this kind of
intervention has the potential to severely undermine initiatives that have
already saved the lives of millions of people.'
The shift in policy will have serious implications for Britain, which
remains committed to the philosophy of harm reduction domestically and
through aid programmes funded by the Department for International Development.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake