Despite the made progress, the level of discrimination shown by the police against drug users remains high, experts of “Promo-LEX” Association established after the second monitoring of the implementation of the methodological instruction son police intervention in HIV prevention and prophylaxis among high-risk groups, IPN reports.
In a report, “Promo-LEX” says that even if concrete steps have been taken during the last two years to implement the instructions, the monitoring results show many of the problems identified in 2015 are topical in 2017 too. The police’s negative perceptions of users of injectable drugs are an impediment in accepting and implementing the instructions.
The employees of police inspectorates consider the drug users are offenders, not victims (76%), that they are to blame for the situation in which they are (75%), that they are dangerous persons as they can carry infections, such as sexually transmitted diseases (72%). Also, 52% of police officers think most of the drug users have a criminal past. The offenses committed in the town are mainly related to drug users ((31%), while the women who use injectable drugs are considered sex trade workers (45%).
Also, the number of individual kits for ensuring the protection of police officers from the risk of catching HIV or other transmitted diseases during searches is insufficient. These are absent in 77% of the subdivisions were police officers were interviewed.
