Two Vancouver-based health policy groups have partnered with the International AIDS Society to release a report today calling on the world's governments and policy-makers to abandon the criminalization of drug use.
The report, entitled the Vienna Declaration, argues that criminalizing drug users spreads violence and infectious diseases like HIV/ AIDS.
The BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy were instrumental in drafting the official declaration of the 2010 AIDS conference scheduled for Vienna next month.
Dr. Evan Wood, an author of the declaration and the founder of the Centre for Science in Drug Policy, said the paper urges political leaders to put ideology aside and treat drug-use as a public health crisis rather than a law enforcement issue.
"It makes the case quite forcefully that not only has drug-law enforcement failed to achieve its stated objectives in terms of reducing drug supply ... but there is also a range of unintended consequences," said Wood. "If you look at countries that rely more on law enforcement to deal with drugs, you also see higher HIV rates among drug users."
