Page 96 - Human Rights

Faculty of Nursing
Adult care Nursing Department

First, it is now proven that a policy to reduce illicit drug use rests essentially on preventive
strategies during childhood and adolescence.

Second, it is because of the symbolic, negative value of its implementation; according to this line
of thinking, by adopting this strategy, the message society conveys to citizens is that the use of
illicit drugs is not intrinsically negative and, to a certain extent, should even be favored, given the
right to self-determination.

However, for a few decades, in Europe and elsewhere, there have been drug consumption rooms
where illicit drugs can be used under the supervision of trained personnel (Belyakov et al. 2018).

The central objective is to:

1 Reduce the acute risks of disease transmission due to unhygienic injection practices;

2 Prevent deaths from drug overdose;

3 Bring together high-risk consumers and drug treatment services as well as other health and social
services.

Importantly, the impact of these measures should be carefully monitored to ensure that they are
achieving their intended objectives (Skolnick 2015).

Within the scope of policies for the prevention and reduction of risks and minimization of damage,
programs for controlled consumption aim to increase asepsis in intravenous consumption and
consequently reduce the inherent risks of this form of consumption, as well as the promotion of
proximity to consumers.

From a public policy perspective, the consumer is not considered as a criminal, but as someone
who needs helps from society and the health system.

Trafficking only should be a crime.

Despite successive efforts, indications of drug use, associated mortality, and prevalence of the
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are still the subject of intense concern; further, different
countries have different results in this field.

Regarding AIDS, new HIV infections have been reduced by 40% since the peak in 1997.

Since 2010, new HIV infections have declined by an estimated 16%, from 2.1 million to 1.7 million
in 2018 (UNAIDS 2019).

Within this framework, the defined goals can be grouped into six broad categories:

93 Academic Year 2025/2026