Flickr, Curtis Gregory Perry
That’s one of the key points of the Vienna Declaration, an international statement issued this week at the 2010 AIDS Conference calling for a more rational approach to reducing illicit drug use.
Drug use is fueling a raging HIV epidemic in Eastern Europe, experts say, and the “War on Drugs” has failed worldwide to either curb drug use or discourage the illicit drug trade.
Dr. Julio Montaner, president of the International AIDS Society:
“We have to recognize that the war on drugs has not only failed to reduce illicit drug supply and use, but it has also resulted in a range of human rights violations, drug market violence and HIV and HCV epidemics among users.”
