International declaration calls on governments to base policing of illicit drugs on facts
The Vienna Declaration [opens to PDF] is the official declaration of the 18th International AIDS Conference taking place in Vienna, Austria from July 18 to 23. The Declaration describes the known harms—and failures—of the conventional “war on drugs” approaches and their overwhelmingly negative health and social consequences. The Declaration calls on governments and international organizations to make a number of changes, including the implementation and evaluation of a science-based public health approach to address harms stemming from illicit drug use.
We speak with Dr. Evan Wood, founder of the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy and clinical associate professor at the University of British Columbia, who led the writing of the Declaration.
