Lessons learned about treating injecting drug use as a health issue, rather than a criminal or social issue, have changed attitudes and saved lives across the region.
Criminalising people who inject drugs (PWID) does little to reduce drug use, and next to nothing to prevent the related health impacts of injury, overdose, and the spread of blood-borne diseases, including HIV and Hep C.
In the 1990s, Burnet took a different approach. We focused on reducing the risk of harm to PWID by introducing needle exchange programs and opioid substitution treatments. Unintentional deaths dropped and the spread of disease slowed.
“You may not stop somebody from injecting drugs but, if you take a more pragmatic, human-centred approach, you can reduce the harms related to injecting drug use.” —Chad Hughes
The Australian approach gained an international reputation and other countries affected by drug use were eager to learn more. At their invitation, we got to work delivering training, building local capacity, and setting up pilot programmes across the region.
Where are we now?
- Unintentional deaths dropped and the spread of disease was slowed by focusing on reducing the risk of harm to PWID and introducing needle exchange programs and opioid substitution treatments.
- The Australian approach, driven by Burnet, gained an international reputation.
- We built capacity for drug-related harm reduction in Asia.
- Harm-reduction is now the norm across Asia and multiple centres have been established across the region.