HIV/AIDS policy & law review / Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network
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HIV AIDS Policy Law Rev · Dec 2009
Panel: emerging issues in Canada's drug policy--implications for HIV prevention and health promotion for people who use drugs.
This article contains summaries of the three presentations made during this panel. Carol Strike discusses various strategies that have been used to prevent HIV transmission among people who use drugs. Richard Elliott reviews the implications of the 2008 judgment by the British Columbia Supreme Court on Insite, the supervised injection facility in Vancouver. Finally, Senator Claude Nolin provides some observations on legislating in the area of drug law.
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Criminalization of HIV transmission and exposure is an ineffective tool for combating AIDS and a costly distraction from programs that we know work--programs such as effective prevention, protection against discrimination, reducing stigma, empowering women and providing access to testing and treatment. In this article, which is based on a public lecture he gave at "From Evidence and Principle to Policy and Action," the 1st Annual Symposium on HIV, Law and Human Rights, held on 12-13 June 2009 in Toronto, Canada, Justice Edwin Cameron analyzes the surge in criminal prosecutions, discusses the role that stigma plays in these prosecutions and makes the case against criminalization.
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HIV AIDS Policy Law Rev · May 2009
Criminalization confusion and concerns: the decade since the Cuerrier decision.
In 1998, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a person living with HIV could be found guilty of aggravated assault if he or she did not disclose his or her HIV-positive status and exposed another person to a "significant risk" of HIV transmission. The notorious case--R. v. ⋯ Ten years later, many of those questions remain unanswered. In addition, a host of new issues have been added to the debate.
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HIV AIDS Policy Law Rev · May 2009
Uganda: Proposed bill would criminalize HIV transmission, force partners to reveal HIV-positive status.
The Uganda government has introduced in Parliament an omnibus AIDS bill which aims to criminalize the "intentional or willful" transmission of HIV, introduce "routine" HIV testing for pregnant women, and require disclosure of one's HIV-positive status to one's spouse or partner. The bill also contains measures to protect the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS, including guaranteeing access to treatment and providing protection against discrimination.
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HIV AIDS Policy Law Rev · Dec 2008
Randomized Controlled TrialResults of the first North American prescription heroin study are promising.
In October 2008, the North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI) research team released the primary outcomes of a randomized controlled trial aimed at testing whether the provision of pharmaceutical-grade heroin under medical supervision benefits people suffering from chronic opiate addictions who have not benefitted from other treatments. The treatment phase was completed in June 2008. Retention and response rates were high, suggesting that heroin-assisted therapy is a safe and highly effective treatment for people with chronic heroin addiction.