Making drug use a crime makes HIV prevention, treatment more difficult
The findings, appearing May 14 in The Lancet HIV , suggest that the so-called War on Drugs, which called for stiff penalties for possession of illegal drugs, has been unsuccessful in reducing drug use and has put thousands of people in jail who might be better served through drug treatment. The United States, for example, is in the midst of an unprecedented crisis of opioid use and abuse and, in many parts of the world, HIV rates are being driven up by the unmet HIV prevention and treatment needs among people who inject drugs. The use of injection drugs continues to be a key driver of the global HIV epidemic, with 51 percent of new HIV cases in eastern Europe and central Asia occurring in people who inject drugs, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. The researchers systematically reviewed 106 peer-reviewed studies published between Jan. 2006 and Dec. 2014 on criminalization and HIV prevention or treatment among people who use injection drugs. "Mor...