Source: Human Rights Watch
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(New York) - The Cambodian government should immediately halt the forced participation of drug users in the trial of an experimental herbal formula to "cure" their drug dependence, Human Rights Watch said today.
Since December 11, 2009, police have arrested at least 17 people and detained them in the government-run Orgkas Khnom drug detention center on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. With no indication of voluntary consent, they were administered a seven-day course of an herbal formula called "Bong Sen." Such a trial violates the rights of the forced participants and does not meet minimum scientific standards, Human Rights Watch said.
"The perverse experiment at Orgkas Khnom was only made possible by arbitrary detention and compelled participation," said Rebecca Schleifer, the health and human rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "Any supposed results' would be scientifically unreliable, and the whole thing is ethically outrageous."
People forced to participate in the trial did so after being arrested by police from Phnom Penh streets. Unlike ordinary arrests - when people who use drugs are processed by Ministry of Social Affairs center staff - the police took them directly to the Orgkas Khnom center.
Cambodia has not always been so open to the idea of drug trials. In 2004, Prime Minister Hun Sen called for an end to trials of the antiretroviral drug tenofovir  carried out in Cambodia by Family Health International, stating: "Cambodia is not a trash bin country, they should not conduct experiments with Cambodians. They should do it with animals."
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