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四分之一世纪前，亚洲和太平洋是地球人口几乎一半的所在地，在注射毒品的人中有普遍的艾滋病毒流行病风险。

试想一下，那本来是什么健康，社会和经济成本！泰国已经成为世界上第一个体验普遍艾滋病毒流行病的国家。

This had started among people who inject drugs and then spread to commercial sex workers, their sex partners and then the sex partners of their sex partners. The HIV epidemic in Thailand first started among prisoners who injected drugs but remained undetected while the problem was still only in jails.

Many prisoners were发行作为庆祝国王60的皇家大赦的一部分^Th生日，无意中释放了许多最近感染了艾滋病毒和高度感染力的人。

艾滋病毒患病率突然增加

在短短十个月内，注射药物注射药物的艾滋病毒的患病率从1％增加到40％。仅仅几年后，该国西北部六名男子军事新兵和八分之一的孕妇患有艾滋病毒感染。

艾滋病病毒does not respect national borders so this epidemic then soon spread rapidly in neighboring countries among and from people who were injecting drugs.

艾滋病病毒control in Asia

In the early 1990s, I participated in a World Health Organisation meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on the subject of HIV control among people who inject drugs in Asia. Every country in the region was represented.

It was the first ever official meeting to be held on this subject in Asia, many countries in the region were still ruled by communist governments. One delegate after another got up to read carefully and word-for-word their prepared and approved speech.

It was clear that the national representatives had been ordered to only read their officially approved speech and make no other comments. The meeting ran way behind time. Whether communist or capitalist, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim or officially atheist, the representative of every country argued that HIV would never be a problem in their country and even if it did become a problem, their country would never accept ‘harm reduction’. I was so depressed by this meeting that I briefly retreated to my room.

支持减少伤害

A quarter of a century later, every major country in Asia has now accepted harm reduction and implemented and expanded needle syringe programs and community and/or prison opioid substitution programs.

但是四分之一世纪后，亚洲的每个主要国家现在都接受了减少伤害，并实施和扩展针注射程序and community and/or prison阿片类药物替代计划（带有美沙酮和/或丁丙诺啡）。

Coverage is still woeful but improves a little every year. What hasn’t changed is the relentless opposition of东盟（东南亚国家协会）伤害减少。东盟仍然打算在2015年底之前使所有成员国毒品免费。

该目标最近已被推回2020年。涉及毒品政策的联合国从敌对变为减少伤害的支持者。现在，它们都支持减少伤害的程度。

一群相对较小的人和一些组织实现了这一变化。该地区以外的大约25名亚洲人和类似的人非常紧密地工作，并且非常努力地实现这一变化。这些左右的人包括医生，临床医生，研究人员，吸毒者，激进主义者以及国家和国际公务员。战斗还没有结束。

在减少亚洲毒品危害的斗争之后，为减少毒品政策的伤害而奋斗。

在减少亚洲毒品危害的斗争之后，为减少毒品政策的伤害而奋斗。There is now a growing recognition that drug prohibition has failed comprehensively and has resulted in severe unintended negative effects.

While drug prohibition has been vigorously implemented, drug markets have got steadily larger and more dangerous. Deaths, disease, crime, corruption and violence have continued to soar.

2016年4月在纽约联合国United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugswill consider what to do about the fractured international consensus on drug policy.

More needs to be done

尽管最近几十年来亚洲减少伤害的进展很大，但还有很多事情要做。权力永远不会轻易放弃，尤其是在涉及生计的情况下。

尽管最近几十年来亚洲减少伤害的进展很大，但还有很多事情要做。权力永远不会轻易放弃，尤其是在涉及生计的情况下。保护公共卫生的斗争转变为一场战斗，以保护人权。

It is no accident that HIV threatened most men who have sex with men, people who sell sex and people who inject drugs. These behaviors had been defined as criminal acts and consequently severely punished.

现在很明显，这些法律不仅无效地实现其目标，而且要取决于这些法律，而且这些法律也是不公平和不公正的。现在，我们看到了全球禁令的缓慢解散，尤其是在美洲。毒品法改革也将在亚洲开始，这只是时间问题。

So a battle that began with efforts to stop HIV spreading among and from people who inject drugs in Asia has slowly morphed into many other battles with some major gains along the way. Each minor victory showed how much further there was to go.

如果不感谢许多国家的许多好朋友和同事，我就无法结束这一非凡的旅程的故事，并回想起其中一些非凡的人并没有看到这一部分胜利。