Editorial
In rehabilitation's name? Ending institutionalised cruelty and degrading treatment of people who use drugs

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Torture as “treatment”

Health and criminal justice advocates have encouraged efforts to divert drug users to treatment rather than to penal institutions. These arguments have gained favour in settings as varied as New York, which recently reformed the mandatory minimum sentences known as the Rockefeller Drug laws, and in Indonesia, where the Supreme Court in March 2009 encouraged judges to send drug users to rehabilitation centres rather than to prison (Ketua Mahkamah Agung Republik Indonesia, 2009). However, rather

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank OSI colleagues Jonathan Cohen and Lydia Guterman, as well as participants on a panel on this topic at the 2009 International Harm Reduction Conference – Sonia Bezziccheri, Srey Mao, Reaksmey Chen, Shaharudin bin Ali Umar, Richard Pearshouse, and Tran Tien Duc. We are also grateful to the two unnamed reviewers whose comments improved the text.

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