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US attorney requires drug tests for AIDS protestors #HIV #AIDS

Posted by on Feb 22, 2012 in #Fail, HIV/AIDS | 0 comments

US attorney requires drug tests for AIDS protestors #HIV #AIDS

Here you go. Protest in DC, and whether or not you’re on meds legitimately you’re still gonna get treated more harsh.  And, sadly, because this has “HIV” in the title every other blog will ignore the subject entirely:

Because of the drug testing requirement, at least two AIDS activists now face possible jail time and a criminal record for their nonviolent protest. They are asking the U.S. Attorney to drop the charges.The requirement of drug tests was added to the deferral process about a year and a half ago, said Mark Goldstone, a lawyer who specializes in defending nonviolent activists. And it covers an array of nonviolent first offender crimes in DC: shoplifting, prostitution, even free-speech actions like nonviolent protests.

As of this year, the attorney once again altered the pretrial deferral agreement conditions: The drug tests no longer look for marijuana, Goldstone said, and if defendants have a negative test result while in initial lockup, they no longer have to produce two other tests.

This is a “slightly more logical but still very onerous” pretrial agreement, Goldstone said. But it won’t help some of his clients—a group of AIDS activists—who were arrested last April at Senate Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s office while protesting Republican budget cuts to AIDS funding and a ban on syringe exchange funding in the District of Columbia.

About a dozen people were arrested and charged with unlawful entry. They were given the option to enter the pretrial deferral agreement; defendants who forgo the agreement or fail to meet its terms must either plead guilty or go to trial, facing jail time and a criminal record. Most defendants are complying with the deferral agreement, Goldstone said, but two have come upon roadblocks because of the drug tests. One activist couldn’t make it to the DC drug testing site.

The other is Antonio Davis, who is living with AIDS and is an activist with ACT UP Philadelphia. Davis requires medical marijuana for a host of illnesses, including avascular necrosis, AVN, a bone disease.

 

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