Tuesday, October 28, 2008

For Indonesian Drug Users, HIV and Addiction Present a Double Burden


Quietly and destructively, starting in the mid-1990s a low-grade form of heroin known as putaw found a thriving market in Indonesia's cities. The sharp increase in injection drug use led to a dramatic rise in HIV/AIDS among users. Today, Indonesia finds itself battling twin epidemics of drug addiction and HIV/AIDS.

For HIV/AIDS advocates and activists in this Southeast Asian archipelago, fighting HIV/AIDS among injection drug users (IDUs) takes place in a world of contradiction. "IDUs are the easiest people to work with—and the most difficult," says Samuel Nugraha, a longtime HIV counselor who is now with the UN Office of Drugs and Crime HIV/AIDS unit in Indonesia and who serves on TREAT Asia's steering committee. "Compared with other vulnerable groups, they have less shame, they're not hidden so it's relatively easy to reach them. But they are addicts, and the addiction itself is often too much to overcome. When it comes to adherence to medication or responsibility, their priority is their addiction."

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Indonesia: Drug Offenders Executed, More To Come


Indonesia shot two Nigerian men for drug offences late on Thursday night, and drug officials hope more executions will soon be carried out.

Samuel Iwachekawu Okoye and Hansen Anthony Nwaoysa were executed before midnight on Thursday (26 June) on Nusakambangan prison island, off the coast of central Java.