Neglected Voices – Sierra Leone: How a harsh drug law is hindering efforts against HIV

Drug users are one of four groups of people – known as the key populations – who are considered to be most vulnerable to contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The other groups are people engaging in same sex relations, especially men who have sex with men (MSM), sex workers and prisoners.

But drug users are also in constant trouble with the law, because of the criminalization of drug use in Sierra Leone, which forces them to go underground and engage in unsafe practices like sharing of needles and syringes, thereby exposing to the risk of contracting the virus.

In this report in a Neglected Voices series, we look at this happens and what some organizations have been doing about the situation.