Drug Use Among Women

A 2015 Op-ed in The Guardian said “Laws are built around the belief that drug addicts need to be punished to stop them. But if pain and trauma and isolation cause addiction, then inflicting more pain and trauma and isolation is not going to solve that addiction. It’s actually going to deepen it.” How do we direct our public policy in light of this? The Malaysian AIDS Council recently released a policy brief which has been in the works since September 2013, focusing their attention on women drug users in Kelantan, Penang, Johor and the Klang Valley. We speak to the authors of this report.