Hat Tip and thanks to TDA reader Zentient for the heads up on this one!

Hope for those in high HIV/AIDs infected areas of Africa seemed once again possible with the arrival of potent antiretroviral drugs and a pledge of $50 billion in support by the US, but a new threat to the delivery of these drugs has actually compounded the existing misery. It’s not rogue militia or government mismanagement to blame… it’s drug addicts. In some areas of South Africa the hospital care centers are empty, because the healthcare workers and even the patients have sold the antiretrovirals to teens seeking to get high.

Anti-retroviral drugs used to treat HIV/Aids are being bought and smoked by teenagers in South Africa to get high. Reports suggest that the drugs are being sold by patients and even healthcare staff for money. Schoolchildren have been spotted smoking the drugs, which are ground into powder and sometimes mixed with painkillers or marijuana. ~ BBC

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I wish there was something that I could say, some clever commentary or at least point out a potential solution. The only thing that keeps coming to mind however is how substance abuse can make any situation worse, and of course the bitter irony that as a situation degrades it increases the likelihood that substance abuse will occur.

Smoking the pills has a hallucinogenic and relaxing affect. “When I asked them why they like doing it, they said it helps them relax and forget about their problems,” said Ms Nhlapo.

And as every addict and alcoholic eventually learns, the solace from substance abuse is only temporary and the problems just keeping worse.