Pubdate: Fri, 05 May 2006
Source: Vancouver 24hours (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 Canoe Inc
Contact:  http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3837
Author: Irwin Loy, 24 Hours
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

REVEREND PREACHES CHRISTIAN ASPECTS TO HARM REDUCTION

When bewildered people ask Rev. Edwin Sanders how a man of God could 
possibly run a needle-exchange program for addicts out of his Nashville 
church, the preacher man has the same response each time.

"'What I have to offer people requires that they are alive," Sanders says.

It's a principle integral to the concept of harm reduction, the 
controversial fourth pillar of Vancouver's drug policy that more than 1,200 
delegates have been discussing at this week's conference.

Harm reduction has its detractors - many see the Downtown Eastside's 
supervised injection site and the divisive prescribed heroin program as 
condoning and facilitating drug use, for example.

But Sanders says harm reduction still has a place within Christian teachings.

"I believe the love that Jesus teaches is big enough to include everybody 
and everything," says Sanders, who possesses a booming voice. "The Jesus 
that I know was not an alienating person whatsoever."

He compares harm reduction in drug use to pre-marital sex.

"I would argue that young people should delay their sexual debut," Sanders 
say. "But at the same time, I know that 65 per cent of the young people I 
see [have already had sex]. For me to not give them the kind of information 
that would lead them to behave in a way that is not life-threatening is the 
responsibility of my part."
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