As a scientist, I strongly support drug policies that are based on scientific evidence of what actually works and that respect universal human rights. That is why I joined my colleagues around the world to sign the Vienna Declaration.
As the Vienna Declaration notes, current illicit drug policy is a serious obstacle in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. In addition to failing to achieve its stated objectives, the conventional “war on drugs approach” stigmatizes and criminalizes people who use drugs, increasing their vulnerability to HIV.
In cases where people who use drugs are already infected with HIV, these policies impede their ability to access life-saving treatments and interventions to prevent transmission.
On the contrary, there is an impressive body of literature documenting the economic, social, and public health values of lifesaving programmes such as methadone maintenance therapy, needle exchange, and other harm reduction initiatives. Despite the evidence of their positive impact on individuals and communities, these programmes still face huge and discouraging implementation gaps across the world.
Join me and my colleagues in signing the Vienna Declaration and reminding governments that every time they fail to act on evidence-based drug policy options, they cost us precious time in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Prof. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi is the Director of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Unit at the Institut Pasteur and shares the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine for her discovery of HIV.
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