Published by the International Harm Reduction Development (IHRD) of the Open Society Institute (OSI), this 90-page report aims to detail successful efforts from around the world to offer drug users antiretroviral treatment (ARV) and the dangers of failing to do so.

Breaking Down Barriers was released during the XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand, at the satellite meeting "HIV Treatment for Drug Users: A Realistic Goal." That meeting, which called for greater inclusion of drug users in HIV treatment efforts, was organised by a coalition of leading international AIDS organisations including IHRD, the Central and Eastern European Harm Reduction Network, the European AIDS Treatment Group, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the Thai Drug Users’ Network, and the Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group. Jim Kim, MD, director of the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS programme, served as co-chair of the meeting.

"Available data show clearly that drug users, offered proper support from the health sector, receive the same benefits from treatment as other people with HIV," Kim said at a press conference before the meeting. "Yet drug users are routinely written off as unreachable and noncompliant. In an increasing number of countries, failure to offer HIV treatment to drug users means that an effective response to the epidemic is being fatally compromised."

Breaking Down Barriers categorically refutes negative assumptions about IDUs’ (injection drug users') ability and desire to be treated for HIV infection. It also presents examples of innovative HIV treatment programmes for drug users in a wide variety of countries, including Argentina, Brazil, France, Hong Kong, Russia, Spain, and the United States.

The International Harm Reduction Development Program (IHRD), a part of OSI's Public Health Programs, focuses on diminishing the individual and social harms associated with drug use - particularly the risk of HIV infection - through measures based on the philosophy of harm reduction.