Too High a Cost: HIV & Drug Policy Reform

Too High a Cost: HIV & Drug Policy Reform 
San Gabriel A, Lobby Level
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the war on drugs and the 30th anniversary of the discovery of AIDS. The two disasters have grown side by side – and have deeply influenced each other. In some respects, the silver lining of the black cloud of HIV/AIDS has been the impetus it created for drug policy reform, such as the passage of state medical marijuana laws and efforts to expand access to sterile syringes and methadone. Why has HIV/AIDS been such a compelling rationale for drug policy reform? And how can we push it further? 

Moderator: Laura Thomas, Deputy State Director, San Francisco, Drug Policy Alliance

• Tom Ammiano, Member, California State Assembly, San Francisco, CA    
• Jonathan Cohen, Director, Law and Health Initiative, Open Society Foundation, New York, NY            
• Michael D. Siever, Director of Behavioral Health Services, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, San Francisco, CA     
• Bobby Tolbert, Board Member, VOCAL, New York, NY  
• Ivan Varentsov, Project Coordinator, Andrey Rylkov Foundation, Moscow, Russia          
• Evan Wood, Director, Urban Health Research Initiative, BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, and Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada