Pubdate: Mon, 05 Nov 2007
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2007 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/info/letters/index.html
Website: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Pierre Plourde
Note: Pierre Plourde is a Medical Officer of Health with the Winnipeg 
Regional Health Authority.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites)

HARM REDUCTION -- LIFELINE BETWEEN PREVENTION, TREATMENT

ENFORCEMENT, prevention, harm reduction, and treatment are all needed 
to address the issue of drug misuse and drug addiction. I was 
therefore dismayed to see that our federal government had ignored 
harm reduction, one critical component, in its anti-drug strategy 
announced on Oct. 4, 2007.

Harm reduction programs and services are designed to address the 
harmful consequences of drug addiction where prevention has not 
succeeded and where treatment is either not available or has failed. 
Enforcement, prevention and treatment efforts cannot and will never 
achieve 100 per cent success.

We must, therefore, find ways to reduce the harm inherent in drug 
addiction; otherwise, we leave users to fend for themselves in a very 
harsh and cruel environment. Although there is solid scientific 
evidence in favour of harm reduction approaches, I would like to 
share my personal experiences.

Two years ago, I participated in an event organized by the Harm 
Reduction Network of Manitoba, known as Hard Night Out. For one cold 
night, I along with elected officials, policy-makers and members of 
the media walked the streets of Winnipeg with a homeless person. I 
spent the night with two crack cocaine addicts, sharing food out of a 
garbage dumpster with them, facing rejection from ordinary 
Winnipegers, and sleeping in a mice-infested derelict apartment.

Politicians who describe their new anti-drug strategy with comments 
like "the party's over" have probably not spent a night on the 
street. It is not a party.

The stark reality in our Canadian inner cities is that the majority 
of "drug addicts" are living in abject poverty, many have mental 
health issues, and most are fighting for their lives through no 
choice of their own. A focus on enforcement will do little if 
anything to alleviate their pain and suffering. It is not humane to 
neglect harm reduction as a central component of a drug strategy.

I also recently visited Insite in Vancouver. Insite is the supervised 
injection site that may not receive the legal support it needs from 
the federal government to continue operating when its current 
agreement expires.

One of the clients I met described the site to me as a sanctuary. A 
visit to Insite is truly a very serene, subdued, and tranquil 
experience where clients are treated with respect, dignity, and 
compassion. There is no party. There is no rowdy activity.

Clients say that it is the only time of the day where they know that 
they won't be assaulted, raped, spit at, yelled at, or abused in any 
other way. They will be spoken to kindly and they will be touched 
with gentleness and respect. A true sanctuary.

Harm reduction services are non-judgmental. They neither condone nor 
condemn the act of using an illegal substance. They simply provide a 
humane gesture from one human being to another when enforcement, 
prevention, and treatment have not worked; and they provide a bridge 
toward treatment.

Perhaps we all need to walk a mile in the shoes of a "drug addict" to 
understand how important are non-judgemental services that meet the 
needs of users at vulnerable moments in their lives.

Pierre Plourde is a Medical Officer of Health with the Winnipeg 
Regional Health Authority.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom