Ishwarchandra Haobam, Key Correspondent

(on HealthDev.net): Drug use is not a new phenomenon. It has been traditionally accepted and used for?over a hundred years in most countries across the globe. Since the introduction and distribution of new drugs in the market place, people started abusing it and many countries had to devise laws to tackle this menace.

Drug users are being criminalized in most countries. "They have to face severe penalty or imprisonment of 25 years" said Annie Madden, Director of the Australian Injecting and Illicit Dug Users' League (AIVL) during the penal discussion in the 9th ICAAP pre-Congress Drug User Community Forum. She further stressed that 85% of prisoners in Australia are imprisoned due to drug related offences and if a person is caught possessing drugs for personal consumption then he/she will be sent to community service but it will again depend on the number of offence this person has committed.

The existing criminal justice systems in most countries are not relevant to drug users and it is doing more harm than good. They are widely misunderstood and discriminated against, and for various reasons could be considered less a priority issue for governments to address. "We are not bank robbers, rapists, or killers (who typically get much less time). We are not rip-off artists or fraud merchants. We are those who made or sold or used a product that millions of people want" commented a drug user attending the 9th ICAAP conference.

Drug users' needs are complex and simple solutions would not resolve their multiple problems. However the problems faced by the drug users can be somehow minimized by looking at the world through a human rights lens and from a more holistic perspective. Evidence has shown that criminalization of drug use doesn't bring back the drug user into the mainstream rather they are compelled to go underground and this makes the service provider difficult to reach them. This could be one reason for why the drug user community has less access to the health care system.

"The existing international drug policy does not deter the drug users from using drugs, instead it is doing more harm than good" said Gabor L. Somogyi, a consultant from the International Drug policy consortium (IDPC). The IDPC is a global network of NGOs and professional networks that come together to promote objective and open debate on drug policy issues at the national and international level. Gabor further added that harm reduction programmes need to be included keeping in mind the harms associated with injection of drugs but at the same time other prevention and intervention programmes need to be in place so that we can stop young people at the very early stage from indulging into drug use habit. The drug policy that has been put in place for over fifty years need to be reviewed and the governments should consider the scientific evidence regarding the effective and positive responses in tackling widespread drug use.

HIV/Hepatitis C (HCV) co-infection among injecting drug users is another emerging issue that needs immediate global attention. "It has been always neglected at national and international forums" said Giten Khwairakpam, programme coordinator for Seven Sisters, the coalition of Asia Pacific Regional Networks on HIV/AIDS, a broad based Alliance bringing together seven regional networks, during the panel discussion at the Drug User Community Forum. He further added that people can't afford the expensive Peginterferon HCV treatment because most of the drug users are below the poverty line. The issue of HIV/HCV co-infection needs a serious and immediate attention because thousands of lives have already been claimed. People are dying of HCV even though they are on ARV treatment. Governments are not doing anything to address this emerging and serious issue.

The 1948 Universal declaration of Human Rights also mentioned health as part of the right to an adequate standard of living (article 25). The right to health was again recognized as a human right in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, social and Cultural Rights.

Since then, other international human rights treaties have recognized or referred to the right to health or to elements of it, such as the right to medical care. The right to health is relevant to all States: every State has ratified at least one international human rights treaty recognizing the right to health. Moreover, States have committed themselves to protecting this right through international declarations, domestic legislation and policies, and at international conferences. So the right to health and access to treatment including HCV treatment also applies to drug users. Denying their rights is a violation of international human rights treaty signed by the member states. Governments, stakeholders, civil society organization representatives and political leaders who are attending the congress need to open up their eyes and look into the negative impact on people's lives especially people living with both HIV and HCV.

There is a pyramid being built, upside down, with fewer and fewer supporting workers at the bottom. Eventually, this unnatural pyramid must fall, unless you - the drug user community, wake up and realize that the laws of nature, including human nature, cannot be legislated out of existence. Just remember the following precepts:

• Drug use is not drug abuse.
  
  
• Drug use does not cause crime. Drug prohibition causes crime.
  
  
• Drug abuse is a medical and psychological problem, not a criminal problem.
  
  
• Security cannot be gained by giving up your liberties.
  
  
• Free minds, free bodies and free markets lead to liberty, security and prosperity.
  
  

Morality cannot be legislated, nor can the laws of natural economics. Governments always tend to over control and to be corrupt, and they need to be watched very closely.

With that in mind, the drug users' community needs to show solidarity demanding the right to health and fight against the criminalization laws. The war on drugs is a war against drug users. It doesn't deter the drug users to stop using drugs but rather make them more vulnerable.

Ishwarchandra Haobam
Key Correspondent

Online at: http://healthdev.net/site/post.php?s=5717