Drugs policy ‘causing HIV’

Governments around the world have failed in their war on drugs and fuelled a pandemic in HIV, a leading think tank said.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy criticised nations for imprisoning non-violent drug users and for driving them away from public health services.

In its report published today, The War on Drugs and HIV/Aids – How The Criminalisation of Drug Use Fuels the Global Pandemic, the commission condemns “the remarkable failure of drug law enforcement policies” in cutting the world drug supply.

They criticised nations including the United States, China, Russia and Thailand, which have “ignored scientific evidence and resisted the implementation of evidence-based HIV prevention programmes – with devastating consequences”.