Drug Use and Human Rights: Privacy, Vulnerability, Disability, and Human Rights Infringements
![handle is hein.journals/jchlp12 and id is 397 raw text is: DRUG USE AND HUMAN RIGHTS: PRIVACY,
VULNERABILITY, DISABILITY, AND
HUMAN RIGHTS INFRINGEMENTS
Norbert Gilmore*t
ABSTRACT
Drug use is a complex social phenomenon involving the drugs which
are used, the people using them, the context in which they are acquired
and used, and the social construction of drug use by society and by gov-
ernments. It is a popular yet controversial behavior which elicits extreme
public opinion. Discourse about drug use is often polarized, emotional,
and divisive. This is most evident in the approaches used or proposed to
control drug use and the risks and harms associated with its use and con-
trol. Despite this, there is almost no discourse about the human rights of
* A.B., College of the Holy Cross. 1964. Ph.D., University of London. 1968. M.D..
University of Vermont, 1970. The author is currently a Professor of Medicine at the Mc-
Gill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law and Associate Director of the McGill AIDS
Centre at McGill University, where his research addresses social, economic, ethical, legal.
and public policy issues concerning AIDS and drug use.
This Article is dedicated to Professor M.A. Somerville. Founding Director of the McGill
Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, McGill University. For the past decade, Margo
Somerville has been an esteemed colleague, confidant, and counsel to the author. Profes-
sor Somerville's creativity, scholarship, and productivity have stimulated, instructed, and
guided the author's work.
The author also wishes to thank Professor H.P. Glenn of the Institute of Comparative
Law, Faculty of Law, McGill University; Mr. A.C. Hendriks, Vakgroep Bestuursrecht,
Faculteit der Rechtgeleerheid, Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Dr. E.
Hepburn, I.B.V.M., of the Queensland Bioethics Centre, South Brisbane, QL, Australia;
and Dr. David Collins of Rainey, Collins Wright & Co., Wellington NZ, for their helpful
advise and review of this Article.
Research for this Article was funded, in part, by the Social Science and Humanities
Research Council of Canada and the Fonds del la recherche en sante due Quebec. An early
version of this text was presented at An International Conference on Health and Human
Rights, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, September 22-24, 1994.
t [At the author's request, the citations in this Article comport to the style of the
New England Journal of Medicine. According to the author, this is a variant of the Na-
tional Library of Medicine's Index Medicus. The Journal thanks the author for assuring
the accuracy of the quotations and footnotes within this Article.]](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/jchlp12&div=23&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
Drug Use and Human Rights: Privacy, Vulnerability, Disability, and Human Rights Infringements
Drug Use and Human Rights: Privacy, Vulnerability, Disability, and Human Rights Infringements