THE HARM IN 'HARM REDUCTION'

Health Minister Tony Clement announced new funding for drug treatment
facilities in Vancouver but, understandably, he didn't comment on
Insite because its future is now before the courts. Hearings over
jurisdiction of Vancouver's safe injection facility concluded in a
B.C. Supreme Court on May 7 and though a judgment is due in early
June, appeals are probable, as is an injunction to keep the facility
open past June 30 when its exemption under federal drug laws expires.

Certainly, the plaintiffs are well prepared. The Vancouver Area
Network of Drug Users, an association of heroin and cocaine users,
and the Portland Hotel Society, a Downtown Eastside residents group
that helps run Insite, are largely funded through B.C.'s health
ministry by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority which in turn runs
Insite. Experienced advocates and demonstrators all, the purposes of
these convoluted funding arrangements aren't clear but it wouldn't be
the first time the courts were used to advance an agenda with
camouflaged taxpayer dollars footing the bill.

That aside, the plaintiffs' arguments are clear enough: drug
addiction treatment is a health issue and therefore provincial
jurisdiction. Moreover, and like the Supreme Court of Canada's
decision on medicinal marijuana, Canada's Controlled Drug and
Substances Act contravenes the addict's Charter rights and shouldn't
apply to addicts in treatment at Insite.

It's an argument that smacks of having your drugs and harm reduction
too but, as reported by the Canadian Press, counsel for the federal
government appropriately took the argument at face value. "The
primary activity at this site, which is drug injection for drug
users, is not medical treatment, which the Charter could protect,"
said John Hunter. "They are allowed to use drugs without any
discussion of treatment."

"At the end of the day, there is no constitutional right to use
heroin or cocaine, even if you are addicted to them."

Hunter might have added that not only is Insite not a treatment
facility, a few hastily installed beds notwithstanding, but as an
expert panel for Health Canada reports, of the few Vancouver addicts
who use it even fewer seek treatment.

It is all part and parcel of the twisted logic, moral gymnastics and
legal quagmire that has engulfed Insite since its inception in 2003.
North America's first legal supervised injection site, like other
vaunted harm reduction programs, aims to reduce the spread of
infection and overdose deaths even as addicts use their own illegally
obtained and financed drugs, often at great harm to others. So far,
no one is discussing liability though this issue must inevitably
arise once an addict dies or a business closes due to use of, or
proximity to, such facilities.

It is the Clockwork Orange world evoked by the harm reduction
approach that is most disturbing. The Anthony Burgess novel describes
a society where antisocial behaviour is reduced to an "illness" for
which the required "treatment" is a form of state induced stupor.
Human agency, free will and moral capacity are surrendered, denied,
or made null and void.

There is another way. Restoring vagrancy laws, rescinded in 1972 by
then prime minister Pierre Trudeau, would help remove the most
vulnerable -- young prostitutes, squeegee kids and new drug users --
from harm caused by dealers and pimps. Governments and civil society
would in turn be compelled to deal with homelessness in a
professional way. In Alberta, the Protection of Children Abusing
Drugs Act allows parents to commit their adolescents for compulsory
treatment while outreach programs and drug courts offer compassion
but demand accountability. As for addictive drugs with purported
medicinal properties, they should undergo accepted legal and
scientific protocols before being marketed or prescribed, protocols
circumvented by medicinal marijuana that now need correction.

In the meantime, we must remove the harm in harm reduction -- a
fatalistic, patronizing, no-hope approach that sanitizes, normalizes
and facilitates continued use of drugs. For while such concepts are
seductive, in a culture that believes everything should be controlled
except human appetites, they are also treacherous. The twin pillars
of public order and human dignity are finally and only sustained by
the desire to be and do our best in accordance with the highest
standards of human conduct and, when we slip and with provision for
illness, to be accountable.

The alternative is a Clockwork Orange world.

Margret Kopala's column on western perspectives appears every other week.