Drug Watch
International
Position Statement
ILLICIT DRUGS AND THE IMMUNE
SYSTEM: AIDS AND DISEASE
The
impact of illicit drugs on the immune and central nervous systems is a key
factor in the suffering from AIDS and the spread of other life-threatening
diseases. The single most compassionate and cost effective method to reduce the
rampage of AIDS and to improve the quality of life of HIV positive people is to
eliminate the use of illicit drugs. Public and private funds should be directed
to education and research which focus on the impact of illicit drugs on the
immune system and disease.
Background:
Scientific
research conclusively documents that illicit drug use, including heroin,
cocaine, amphetamines and marijuana, weakens and suppresses the immune system,
impairs human judgment regarding safe sexual behavior, and facilitates sexually
transmitted diseases. Despite this information, public policy has been
subjugated to social and political arguments, such as distribution of syringes
and needles and providing marijuana to smoke as "medicine."
Enabling
illicit drug use contributes to AIDS and the spread of HIV, tuberculosis,
hepatitis, chlamydia, Kaposi's sarcoma, and other infectious and sexually
transmitted diseases. Pro-drug legalization advocates and illicit drug users
have deliberately used the tragedy of AIDS to promote public sympathy for public
acceptance of drug use and to undermine drug paraphernalia laws. The U. S. Drug
Enforcement Administration has chastised pro-legalization groups for
perpetrating a "cruel hoax" upon sick and dying persons.
Proponents
of illicit drug use ignore the strong relationship between drug use, drug
toxicity, and the behavioral effects of such use in increasing the risk of AIDS
and other infectious diseases. Drug legalization groups mislead compassionate
individuals by focusing on routes of drug administration and supply instead of
drug toxicity. Concern about the toxic and immune damaging biological effects of
the drug in the needle has been severely ignored and replaced by political and
social arguments to increase the supply of needles to inject the drugs. Research
linking illicit drug use to the spread of HIV and infectious diseases has
largely been ignored in public health strategies that deal with the AIDS
problem.
Rationale:
A
healthy immune system serves as the body's first line of defense for disease.
Scientific research demonstrates that drugs such as marijuana, cocaine,
methamphetamines, and heroin suppress and damage one or more of the body's
immune systems. A weakened immune system increases the odds of a variety of
"opportunistic" infections i.e., those that occur because they have
taken advantage of an opportunity which would not exist with a normal immune
system.
The
use of illicit drugs is highly correlated to contracting and spreading HIV and
other infectious diseases. The use of illicit drugs results in impaired judgment
leading to unsafe and permissive sexual activity. Drug addicts often exchange
sex for drugs. Drug users often
have poor nutrition and health practices that increase risk of disease and
infection. The use of illicit drugs is correlated with rape and violent crime.
The illicit drugs used by injecting drug users often carry bacterial and fungal
contaminants. Injecting drug use carries a host of risks regardless of the
sterility of the needle used.
Public
and professional education on AIDS has not placed proper emphasis on the
relationship between illicit drug use, the immune system, and AIDS. Social and
political pressure by special interest groups has brought misdirection with AIDS
education funds, which are used to focus on routes of drug use, rather than the
biological effects of drug toxicity. This
is a barrier to effective prevention of illicit drug use.
AIDS
patients and HIV positive individuals have not been fully informed of the
hazards of illicit drug use on their condition and the need to abstain from
these drugs. The plethora of scientific research linking the effects of illicit
drugs to impairment of the immune system and to the spread of AIDS and diseases
has not been widely disclosed or disseminated.
Sufferers
of AIDS and infectious disease, the public, health professionals, policymakers,
and children must be informed of the role that illicit drug use has in
facilitating the development and spread of these diseases. Providing hypodermic
needles for HIV positive individuals to inject drugs, rather than directing
these resources to helping individuals halt drug use, is both inhumane and
ineffective.
For
over two decades there has been a clear correlation between increased public
perception of the harmfulness of drugs and a reduction in drug use. Prevention
education in the past has focused on the effects of drugs on organ damage and
the respiratory system. All AIDS and drug education efforts should now provide
greater focus on the effects of drugs on the immune system and their linkage to
the spread of contagious disease.
Funds
should be directed to scientific exploration of the biological impact of illicit
drugs on the immune system and to the dissemination of this information to the
public. Our limited resources must not be misdirected through the social and
political pressure and misinformation of special interest groups. Compassion and
science require true drug prevention and treatment, scientific research, and
accurate education on "Illicit Drugs and the Immune System: AIDS and
Disease."
COPYRIGHT:
Permission is granted to reproduce this article,
provided credit is given to Drug Watch International.
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