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The situation of injecting drug users in India is a bad one;
it is a rather terrible one.
The situation with drug users is a terrible one, let us put it that way.
It is a very ironic situation actually, because in India, we did not have a criminal law
against drugs, like we did not have a criminal law against ***, actually.
The *** law came in when the British came.
The criminal law on drugs came because the Indians introduced it based on agreements
that they had made with some powers that be in the world twenty-five years ago.
And we criminalised drug use at that point really.
And since then, you have seen a push towards very risky habits within drug use.
So, for instance, marijuana has traditionally been used in India for centuries and centuries and centuries.
It was criminalised and has fuelled a drug use situation that is far more risky.
And there are pockets in India where it is actually a drug users’ epidemic,
because India is geographically in a position where there is a lot of trade going on.
Those are the people who are very much at the margins, I would say, of any kind of policy,
or thinking, or compassion, or even rights empowerment.
There are some attempts to try to create some sort of needle exchange programs,
drug substitution programs, but those are happening despite the law.
So, it is no easy to do that kind of work. But we know, the science tells us
that these kinds of interventions are the right things to do.
But it is very difficult to convince policymakers in India
that this is how we need to change our thinking on this. But hopefully it will happen.
There is a lot of effort going on, but they have been disrupted often.
They disrupt, then they come back etc… so it is never been easy and, like I have said,
there are isolated efforts. So it is not a comprehensive attempt to do this.
A couple of NGOs are trying to do it despite the forces which are against them.
For further information on human rights, ***/AIDS
and to endorse Now More Than Ever, the Joint Statement,
visit, www.HIVhumanRIGHTSnow.org
Subtitles: Arielle Reid, István Gábor Takács �