TIMES VIEW This will help check spread of HIV

    The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) is in the process of formulating a Bill that will seek to legalise a national drug substitution and needle exchange programme. As part of this initiative, known addicts will be supplied clean syringes and drugs for intravenous use. Methadone and Bupernorphin drugs will replace the more addictive hard drugs like heroin and cocaine. By discouraging needle sharing, NACO hopes to reduce the risks of addicts getting infected through dirty syringes by giving them a cleaner alternative.

    According to present law, anyone found injecting narcotics could be arrested. NACO is trying to create a movement to amend this law to make it less draconian. Punitive laws often have the opposite effect when the ‘criminal’ is a drug addict. The only way to tackle this problem is to grasp the nettle. It is not a question of only disciplining the mind; substance-abuse victims find that their bodies are so used to high levels of narcotics that they are unable to cope without the required dose.

    Over 10 per cent of India’s two lakh intravenous drug addicts have been infected with the HIV virus through sharing of contaminated needles. It is impractical to expect that drug addicts would give up the habit if required to do so by law. The challenge is in enabling drug addicts to gradually wean themselves away from their dependence. Supplying addicts with clean syringes or needles is a step that will at least prevent spread of infection. Ideally, an addict should be eventually de-addicted. Since that takes time, the next best thing is to at least make available to him safer methods and milder drugs.

    In north-eastern states like Manipur, the rate of infection among intravenous users is very high. Although he opposed distribution of clean syringes to addicts during his presidency, former US president Bill Clinton admits that he was wrong. He is today an ardent advocate of legalising clean needle exchange as this will help drastically reduce spread of HIV among addicts.

COUNTER VIEW We should not pamper addicts Sindhu Manjesh

    NACO’s proposed Bill is a classic case of pampering the devil. Drug addicts need help to get over their addiction. Providing ‘softer’ drugs as a substitute to get over the ‘hard’ ones and free needles to arrest the spread of HIV through shared syringes is not only misplaced, but also outrageous. Ask any reformed addict and he will tell you that there is no such thing as ‘cutting down’. You either quit for good or do not.

    HIV is a scourge more pronounced in the community of drug-abusers. In the least, the fear of contracting it deters one from succumbing to the pull of the prick. Easy access to syringes will erase even that element of deterrence. There is no guarantee that availability of clean syringes will put a stop to joint sessions. Drug intake is often a communal ritual.

    The first needle exchange programme was put in place in Amsterdam in 1984. And has been replicated in many countries since. Frequently, figures are bandied about to establish the success of such programmes. But they are highly questionable. Many factors confound statistics and where decrease in abuse cases or HIV affliction is seen, it is very difficult to tie it in with needle exchange programmes.

    There are practical problems as well. Implementing and monitoring such a programme is one that the public health system in India is ill-equipped to do. In a country where there is a stringent social and legal taboo on drug consumption, it is hard to picture a scenario where addicts will sign up to such initiatives.

    In the final analysis, the effects of drug abuse are not limited to the addict alone but the society he lives in. If the threat posed by addicts — smokers, alcoholics, drug abusers — were classified by degree, there can be no doubt that a drug addict does more harm to more people. Entire communities have been destroyed across the world because of the drug trade. What we need is an unambiguous ‘no use’ message. There can be no half measures.

Publication: Times Of India Mumbai; Date:Aug 21, 2006; Section: Editorial; Page Number:18 

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