(Vancouver, May 7, 2003) — An anti-drug crackdown by the Vancouver Police Department has driven injection drug users away from life-saving HIV prevention services, raising fears of a new wave of HIV transmission in the city that is already home to the worst AIDS crisis in the developed world, said Human Rights Watch.
In a 25-page report released today, "Abusing the User: Police Misconduct, Harm Reduction and HIV/AIDS in Vancouver," Rights Watch documents instances of unnecessary force and mistreatment, arbitrary arrest, and other intimidation and harassment of drug users as part of a campaign commonly referred to as Operation Torpedo.The crackdown began on April 7 in the city’s impoverished Downtown Eastside neighborhood. Though drug traffickers are the ostensible target, drug users not charged with selling drugs have been driven to places where health workers cannot reach them to ensure access to sterile syringes and other HIV prevention services.
“The flouting of due process in this crackdown is shocking for a country with Canada’s strong commitment to human rights,” said Joanne Csete, director of the HIV/AIDS Program of Human Rights Watch. “Vancouver risks making its HIV/AIDS crisis much worse—and it’s already the worst on the continent.”
Based on a field study conducted in recent weeks, Human Rights Watch documented cases of police officers beating and otherwise mistreating drug users in custody, conducting public strip searches, and using petty allegations such as jaywalking to justify stops and searches. The report also documents a significant reduction in the use of needle exchange programs and other life-saving services related to fear of police abuse and harassment among drug users.
In November 2002, Vancouver elected a mayor and city council members whose platform included support for a “four-pillar” strategy to address illegal drug use, including needle exchange programs and safe injection facilities. Since those officials took office in January 2003, the city’s most conspicuous anti-drug effort has been several crackdowns against users and dealers, of which the current operation is the most prominent.
Vancouver is a candidate city to host the winter Olympic games of 2010. The decision of the host city will be announced in July.
“As Olympic fever grows in the city, the temptation to continue to ‘clean up’ the Downtown Eastside through repressive means will also grow, but it must be resisted,” Csete said. “We know from the experience of scores of countries that the way to contain an AIDS epidemic is to work respectfully with those persons at highest risk—exactly the opposite of what Vancouver is doing.”
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