Publications
|
Harm Reduction News: Substitution Therapy
Overcoming Ignorance
Decades of experience around the world have proved that methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) is an effective way to prevent HIV transmission among injecting drug users and to help stabilize opiate-dependent people. However, MMT and other so-called substitution therapies continue to be hugely controversial in many countries, mostly because of the erroneous belief that such programs promote illegal drug use.
The essays in this issue of Harm Reduction News, the newsletter of OSI's International Harm Reduction Development program, focus on the status and availability of MMT in several of the countries with the world's fastest-growing HIV infection rates—most of which also have rising rates of injecting drug use. All evidence indicates that criminalizing MMT or placing onerous restrictions on its use plays a major role in the continued growth of HIV and drug use. MMT represents a pragmatic yet compassionate response to the HIV epidemic that will help not only drug users, but society in general.
Need help downloading a file or playing a clip? Click here.
|
|
