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Vienna – UN member states should oppose U.S. pressure to strip HIV/AIDS prevention measures from international drug laws or face disastrous consequences in some regions of the world with the spread of HIV/AIDS, ICOS, a leading international drug policy think tank warned today.

The group issued the warning at a press conference that followed two international drug policy meetings in Vienna on the 8th of March during this week’s annual UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, where the thematic debate is Preventing HIV/AIDS and other Blood-Borne Disease in the Context of Drug Abuse Prevention.

“If the international community does not act soon and insist on the endorsement of HIV/AIDS prevention measures within the UN drug control system, many countries in Eastern Europe and Asia, many of which are at a crucial stage of their development, will soon have HIV/AIDS epidemic similar in scope to that of Africa,” said Mr Emmanuel Reinert, Executive Director of ICOS.

ICOS said that the UNODC Administration is bowing to political pressure from the U.S. administration

A Flawed International Model: Reinert pointed to the flawed global drug policy model as one of the major contributors to the high levels of transmission of blood-borne diseases and called on the UNODC Administration to endorse the tried and tested public health policies which are effective in stopping the spread of AIDS. The Council said that UN member states are failing to provide UNODC with the support they need to address these critical issues and that for over forty years the U.S. has been allowed to impose a failed ‘Drug War’ approach on the international community.

“We call particularly on the European Union and its member states to use their position as major donors to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in order to push for effective public health policies such as needle exchange distribution programmes, substitution treatment, and safe consumption centers,” said Reinert. “These measures have proven successful in Europe and must be exported to countries where injection drug use and HIV rates have reached epidemic levels.”

A New International Drug Convention: ICOS released a draft for a new International Drug Convention to complement the existing three International Conventions which form the basis of the UN’s current international drug control framework. This benchmark publication provides a framework for the legality of national and international drug policies which incorporate public health measures such as clean needle exchanges and safe-injection sites.

“Precious time was being wasted discussing whether or not measures such as needle exchange were ‘legal’ or not under the current Conventions,” said Mr Reinert. “The aim of the Fourth Convention is to create new possibilities which would enable countries to legally adopt these life-saving policies.”

A Lack of Political Will: The Council said that it is the UN member countries’ lack of political will that prevents them from standing up to the U.S. position.

Countries where this political will is present, such as Switzerland and Canada, show the way forward. In Canada, where public opinion and the political resolve have been strong enough to develop alternative solutions for the country’s drug problem, the success of a safe injection site, implemented in 2003 in Vancouver has led to the implementation of similar projects across the world, as well as the creation of a new pilot project for Heroin Prescription in North America.

HIV Rates Spreading at Alarming Rates through Injecting Drug Use: According to a recent report from the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board, drug injection is the primary cause of the explosive rates of HIV infection in Eastern Europe and Central Asian countries, where health promotion measures such as clean needle distribution are not implemented. For example, in Russia the percentage of HIV infections resulting from injecting drug use is estimated to have reached over 80 percent.

HIV prevention policies such as clean needle distribution, substitution treatment programmes and safe consumption sites have proved effective in stopping HIV transmission over the last few decades. Countries which have adopted these approaches, including Switzerland, Germany and Australia, have substantially lowered their HIV/AIDS prevalence rate. Incredibly, the U.S. Administration argues that these proven measures do not comply with the international drug control system. The Council said that it is vital that these measures be urgently implemented in Central Asia and Eastern Europe amongst other regions.

"It is unacceptable that in the 21st century, life-saving public health policies are still not given a firm international legal backing despite their proven effectiveness,” said Mr Reinert. “Entire regions are now under threat.”

In Iran, for example, there are nearly two million drug users, two hundred thousand of whom inject drugs and in Russia and Ukraine, levels of HIV infection resulting from injecting drug use are estimated to be 80 and 70% respectively.

A consensus by 2008: a Deadline for change: “It is now very urgent for member states to work together on creating the type of compassionate and pragmatic policy needed for the international drug control system to be effective,” said Mr Reinert “In 1998, the UN declared the goal of a drug free world by 2008. The UN will meet in 2008 to review its progress toward a drug free world, and if current trends continue, they will realize that the current approach has been a massive failure. Now, in the years leading up to 2008, we all have the opportunity to build a new consensus which will bring gobal drug policy in line with the realities of today’s drug issue.”