Pubdate: Sat, 07 Dec 2002
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2002 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/victoria/timescolonist/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: D. I. Solomon
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)

NO QUICK FIX FOR DRUG ADDICTION

Re: "Not an easy fix for drug addiction," Nov. 21.

The debate over setting up safe injection sites for those addicted to 
illegal drugs illustrates the incompatibility of the punishment approach 
and the harm reduction/medical approach to drug addiction.

The harm reduction approach gives priority to the health and welfare of the 
addicts. The punishment approach gives priority to the self-righteousness 
of the non-addicted majority.

The punishment approach is predicated on the belief that society and 
civilization would collapse if elected governments gave up the crusade 
against sinful pleasures. "Tolerating drug abuse and supporting addiction 
sends the wrong message" -- that our virtuous society is giving up on 
virtue by surrendering to vice. It is destroying civilization by weakening 
its greatest strength, the puritan and Victorian attitude towards sinful 
pleasures.

The debate about injection sites revolves around the question of whether we 
defend the integrity of our society and civilization by giving addicts a 
well-deserved miserable life of hellish punishment in prison, or whether we 
"tolerate" drug abuse and "support" addiction through the harm 
reduction/medical approach because we no longer believe that the 
puritan/Victorian crusade against pleasure is vital for the preservation of 
our society and civilization.

It is interesting that no government is more committed to the puritan 
crusade -- and to discouraging other governments from abandoning it -- than 
is the constitutionally-mandated "secular state" -- government of the 
United States.

Is the U.S. government prepared to allow Canadian municipal, provincial and 
the federal levels of government a free debate on the subject of illegal 
drugs, or would it intervene with economic and other pressures to "punish" 
Canada if the puritan crusader side loses the debate to the medical side?

D. I. Solomon, Victoria.
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