Harm Reduction News: Empowered Against Injustice

Discrimination against drug users and people living with HIV/AIDS is a serious threat to people anywhere in the world where injection-related HIV is a problem. Politicians, bureaucrats, and law enforcement officials behind the international war on drugs have devoted much rhetoric to bringing down drug cartels and stamping out drug-related violence and urban decay.

In practice, however, drug war politics cause death and loss of liberty for millions of people. More subtly, HIV-positive people—despite the antidiscrimination laws established in most countries in the last decade—continue to be subjected to hatred, denial of health care and work, and attempts at segregation.

Despite these obstacles, many drug users and HIV-positive people are taking ownership of the politics that affect them. From working to establish accessible health care and harm reduction services, to organizing direct action in protest of unjust policies, to offering peer support and information, these efforts provide an alternative to the destructiveness of the drug war and the unchecked spread of HIV/AIDS. Strong peer support and community activist organizations have appeared around the world including, increasingly, in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

This issue of Harm Reduction News records the fight of drug users and people living with HIV/AIDS to achieve justice. By showing how people are organizing and making themselves heard, these stories confront prejudices and misconceptions held by many policymakers and members of the public—and provide inspiration for positive change.

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