KUALA LUMPUR: A new report published by the United Nations and includes 6 former presidents on the panel, argued that the “war on drugs” being taken across the globe is increasing the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The global “war on drugs" was forcing users away from treatment and into environments where the risk of contracting HIV was high, the Global Commission on Drug Policy (GCDP) argued. In a report published Tuesday, the panel urged the UN to “acknowledge and address the causal links between the war on drugs and the spread of HIV/AIDS and drug market violence". It also presented evidence that aggressive law enforcement policies created barriers to HIV treatment. “The public health implications of HIV treatment disruptions resulting from drug law enforcement tactics have not been appropriately recognized as a major impediment to efforts to control the global HIV/AIDS pandemic," it argued. The GCDP is a panel of politicians, writers and businessmen that advocates decriminalizing drug use by those who “do no harm to others.” Members of the GCDP include six former presidents, four of whom are from Latin America: Mexico's Ernesto Zedillo, Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, Ricardo Lagos of Chile and Colombia's Cesar Gaviria. The report accused the US, Russia and Thailand of ignoring scientific evidence about the relationship between law enforcement policies and HIV rates “with devastating consequences." The increased availability of drugs worldwide proved that the strategy was failing, it added. “The war on drugs has failed, and millions of new HIV infections and AIDS deaths can be averted if action is taken now," it concluded. This week, in Indonesia, health advocates were up in arms over the country's health minister arguing that she would not allow her ministry to deliver condoms to teenagers, which advocates said would do more to stem the transmission of STDs and unwanted pregnancies.
