comment@whoar:..”..Plight of the impoverished drug addict..”
“..U.N. highlights the struggles of developing countries in the fight against drug addiction
While celebrities earn notoriety from publicly going into rehab, millions of impoverished drug addicts are being ostracized, do not have access to doctors and are often imprisoned, a senior U.N. official said Monday.
Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, also said the developing world — already struggling to deal with health, education and unemployment problems — lacks the treatment facilities and law enforcement to control narcotics.
“Poor addicts — and there are millions of them — have been pushed to the margins of society, deprived of medical attention, often exposed to conditions, including imprisonment, that exacerbate their illness,” Costa said according to a copy of a speech he delivered at a Vienna meeting of the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs.
“Strikingly, the addicted rich, singers, models and bankers alike, enter posh private clinics in a deluge of camera flashes — and amuse themselves in the role of trend setters,” he added.
Costa said his office is working with the World Health Organization to achieve universal access to drug treatment and urged governments around the world to protect and respect the human rights of imprisoned addicts and drug users in general..”
(gee..!..going on the criterea cited here..new zealand is most definitely in the ‘developing-country’ grouping..eh..?..
..wot with our barbaric attitudes towards/non-treatment of .. the health issue that is drug addiction ..eh..?..
..our ostracising/denial-of-treatment/imprisonment of our addicts..eh..?..
..all the cited-hallmarks of the ‘developing-country’..eh..?..)
go to source/story>>Plight of the impoverished drug addict - Drugs - Salon.com