AIDS TREATMENT NEWS #231, September 29, 1995
Denny Smith
By all meaningful measures, America's "war on drugs" has been a stunning failure and a tragic waste of national resources. In our opinion, the HIV community has a substantial interest in changing U.S. drug policy, for several reasons:
* Medical marijuana has been forbidden to persons with AIDS, cancer, and other major illnesses, and even research into medical uses of marijuana has been stopped.
* The demonization of anabolic steroids has greatly impeded research into this low-cost potential treatment for wasting syndrome -- a condition which is associated with most AIDS deaths, and often not treated successfully by approved therapies. Research is legal, but buyers' clubs cannot handle these drugs when necessary, and physicians are reluctant to prescribe them off label, greatly slowing both community- based research and the development of clinical experience.
* Tens of thousands of people in this country have been infected with HIV because they are forbidden access to clean needles.
* Safe sex campaigns must explain that even without the use of needles, recreational drugs enhance the incidence of unprotected sex and the risk of HIV infection -- a message hard to communicate consistently when drug laws drive users underground.
* Billions of dollars have been spent on the war on drugs since 1980. At least some of that money could have saved lives through expanded medical research or improved health care for uninsured Americans.
Those who cannot attend this conference but are interested in drug reform may want to subscribe to the Foundation's bimonthly publication, THE DRUG POLICY LETTER. For information on subscribing, or on conference registration, call Whitney Taylor at 202/537-5005, fax 202/537-3007. Special hotel rates will be offered conference participants at Loews at 310/458-6700.
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