Access to condoms in U.S. prisons – HIV/AIDS Policy & Law Review 13(1)

Despite overwhelming evidence that condom use prevents the transmission of HIV, U.S. prison officials continue to limit the availability of condoms to incarcerated persons. Concern for transmission of HIV in prison and in the community upon prisoners’ release has increased the interest of some policymakers in the issue. In this article, Megan McLemore addresses security … Read more

Adrift from the moorings of good public policy: Ignoring evidence and human rights – International Journal of Drug Policy 19 (2008)

The approach of Canada’s Government to Insite, North America’s first safer injecting facility, is one manifestation of what appears to be the government’s broader hostility to both evidence and human rights in public policy, at least insofar as that policy involves the health of people who use illicit drugs. A number of observations are warranted … Read more

Viral Time Bomb: Health and Human Rights Challenges in Addressing Hepatitis C in Canada

By conservative estimates, hepatitis C (HCV) affects some 250,000–300,000 people in Canada. A chronic illness that causes liver failure, liver cancer and other serious health concerns, hepatitis C already weighs heavily on the health care system. Its public health and economic impact is expected to double in only a few years. Today, over 90 percent … Read more

Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime – Update: 7 May 2008

The Government of Rwanda chooses to purchase a generic fixed-dose combination AIDS drug from Toronto-based generic pharmaceutical manufacturer Apotex, Inc., clearing the last major hurdle to the first use of “Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime”, and the first use anywhere of the August 30, 2003 decision of the General Council of the World Trade Organization … Read more