Pubdate: Tue, 22 May 2001
Source: Daily Telegraph (Australia)
Copyright: 2001 News Limited
Contact:  http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/113
Author: Piers Akerman
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Safe Injecting Rooms)

FADING FLOWERS FIND A NEW WHIPPING BOY

The Carr Government's legal shooting gallery isn't doing great business, 
according to those unfortunate enough to have had the facility dumped in 
their neighbourhood -- against their wishes -- by the Uniting Church.

Only a few junkies have popped in to shoot up, or even shoot the breeze. 
Perhaps they will in time.

The Uniting Church's publicity-seeking drug champion, the Rev Harry 
Herbert, is nonetheless attempting to portray the installation as a major 
success, even alluding to the possibility that a life has been saved 
through speedy action by the facility's staff.

In fact, it is impossible to say, but -- hey, let's not question this 
particular church.

No, the most popular church to target remains the Catholic model and its 
forthright archbishop George Pell, now the bogyman for faded flower 
children everywhere, clinging to the misguided values of the swinging '60s.

Dated disc jockey Mike Carlton was at it the other day, blaming the 
archbishop for ordering St Vincent's Sisters of Charity to abort their 
plans to run a shooting gallery through the hospital.

As it happens, the remaining sisters don't call the shots, the board does, 
and it was initially swayed by Dr Alex Wodak, who runs the hospital's drug 
and alcohol clinic, which has in the past received financial support from 
international financier George Soros, who doesn't believe there should be 
any prohibitions on drug use.

It retreated after the Vatican expressed its view on the matter, which the 
Vatican did at the request of the International Narcotics Control Board.

The Vatican's view has not been explored but it does deserve examination -- 
for its reasoned approach.

Observing that such facilities had sprung up in a number of countries in 
the "last years of the past century" and recognising that "it is surely not 
an easy task to come to a balanced answer that would be acceptable and 
satisfying for all parties on this matter", the Vatican's opinion is 
defined primarily from the point of view of the individual.

"On the basis of this fundamental principle we can say that drug dependence 
is against life itself. We can neither talk about a 'freedom of taking 
drugs' nor about a 'right for drugs', because a human person has no right 
to damage itself and cannot and should not renounce its personal dignity 
bestowed upon it by God alone. It is especially dangerous in the case of 
the young," the Vatican said.

"Having this in mind it seems clear that providing a 'clean' environment 
for taking illicit drugs is not acceptable from an ethical point of view. 
It is in fact not aimed at treating drug addicts to free them to the extent 
possible from their habit. Therefore such initiatives seem to be inadequate 
and even unlawful in the approach to drug addicts.

"The right approach must have as its aim health care and the liberation of 
the person from conditions unworthy of a human being."

THE Vatican said this approach must be part of a broad spectrum of various 
activities by governmental, non-governmental and private institutions and 
individuals aiming inter alia at discovering the roots of drug dependence, 
at education and prevention, especially among the young.

It acknowledged that supporters of drug injection rooms argue the 
measurable harm reduction for society as a whole and for individuals in 
particular, diminishing the danger of overdose, infection, and transmission 
of various diseases.

But it also pointed out disadvantages including what it "characterised as a 
low interest for social reintegration" on the side of drug addicts who make 
use of such establishments.

As to the argument that drug injection rooms are harm reducing, it pointed 
out that an analogical harm reduction occurs in therapeutical communities 
which are aimed at recuperation of drug addicts and at their social 
reintegration.

For those who have been claiming that the Vatican view represented a 
hard-line approach, the statement emphasised that though the consumption of 
illicit drugs and the establishment of drug injection rooms are ethically 
not acceptable, it did not mean a condemnation of drug addicts who make use 
of such centres.

"The right approach could not be a sole legal repression or ethical 
condemnation of the drug addicts but all efforts should be taken toward 
rehabilitation of these persons in order to enable them for a long-lasting 
social reintegration," the statement said.

Nor did the Vatican question the sincerity and humanitarian intentions 
behind the establishment of drug injection rooms, just that they were, for 
the Holy See, "ethically unacceptable and unlawful".

It's hard to argue with that.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager