AEGiS-APPJ: Policy Issues Regarding AIDS Among Intravenous Drug users: An Overview

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1988. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Policy Issues Regarding AIDS Among Intravenous Drug users: An Overview

AIDS & Public Policy Journal 3, no. 2 (1988): 1-4
Don C. Des Jarlais

The purpose of this special issue is to examine a variety of policy issues related to AIDS among persons who inject illicit drugs. Before going into the special issues raised by AIDS among intravenous drug users, it will be helpful to consider briefly some of the policy problems related to illicit drug use that existed prior to the emergence of AIDS. The non-medical use of illicit psychoactive drugs has presented difficult policy issues in the U.S. since the late nineteenth century, since the 1960s in Europe, and, more recently, in several developing countries. The General Accounting Office recently estimated that the cost of drug abuse in the U.S. is $59.7 billion per year. There seems to be no simple solution to the various social and health problems associated with illicit drug use. Evidence suggests that some drug education/prevention programs have been effective, but most industrialized and many non-industrialized countries clearly have not developed successful strategies for preventing illicit drug use among their citizens. Knowledge of associated health and social problems apparently does not prevent some persons from using illicit drugs (nor does it deter the use of licit).) psychoactive drugs).
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