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Harm Reduction

Bangkok looks so modern, but some Thai drug policies are downright medieval. (Image via Wikimedia)
Bangkok looks so modern, but some Thai drug policies are downright medieval. (Image via Wikimedia)

Thai Government in Massive Campaign to Round Up Drug Users [FEATURE]

The Thai government has officially embraced harm reduction, but the Interior Ministry doesn't seem to have gotten the memo. Mass roundups of suspected drug users are once again underway.

In Russia, a Glut of Heroin and Denial

Twenty one percent of the 375 tons of heroin produced from Afghanistan's opium fields now finds its way through central Asia into Russia, according to the United Nations. Unlike most countries around the world, Russia refuses to finance harm reduction programs such as needle exchanges, or to legalize methadone. Over the past few months, Moscow has decided to discontinue the work of foreign donors and NGOs with heroin addicts. Critics go as far as to accuse Moscow of willfully neglecting its citizens and thereby fueling what the World Health Organization says is one of the fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemics in the world.

Australia Clean Needle Program Keeping HIV at Bay

Australia's early and widespread use of clean needle programs seems to have kept HIV rates among injection-drug users in check over the long term, according to a study. In many countries, needle exchange programs allow drug users to trade in used needles for new ones, but in Australia users are simply given new ones.