The US delegation in Vienna continues to block any inclusion of harm reduction in the new Political Declaration – to be approved in March 2009 at the high-level segment of the 52nd session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. Three members of the US Congress have written a letter to the new US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, to call for new instructions to be given to the delegation.
According to the authors of the letter – José Serrano, Henry Waxman and Barbara Lee – ‘the US delegation in Vienna has been actively blocking the efforts of some of our closest allies – including the European Union – to incorporate in the declaration reference to harm reduction measures, such as needle exchange’. The authors support introduction into Congress of a bill - HR 179, the Community AIDS and Hepatitis Prevention Act of 2009 - to lift the federal ban on needle exchange.
The issue is particularly serious, as the new Political Declaration will guide international drug policy for the next decade. Many countries look at the UN for guidelines on drug policy. An official recognition of needle exchange and harm reduction in drug control strategies would enhance effective measures against HIV/AIDS and other blood borne diseases, and significantly reduce the number of overdose deaths.
Despite President Obama’s announcement to lift the federal ban on needle exchange, the delegation in Vienna continues to obstruct the inclusion of harm reduction in the declaration.
“We find it hard to understand how the US delegation could object to language which would not obligate any country to adopt particular policies whit which it disagrees”, the Congress members write. They go on to call for new instructions to be given to the delegation “from the highest levels of the new administration” that “ensure that the eventual UN declaration reflects evidence-based policies that protect public health.”