CHOOSE LIFE AND CUT SITE FUNDING

I would never consign even the worst of my enemies (not that I have
any, of course) to the hell of heroin addiction.

But if someone I knew did end up in that particular underworld, the
last thing I would want for them is for authorities to make it more
comfortable.

Instead, I would want our vaunted health-care system to do everything
possible to free them from their addiction.

It seems to me that this distinction - that is, whether to reduce the
harm associated with drug addiction or to work to end it - is at the
root of the current debate over whether the federal government should
continue to fund the "safe-injection site" in Vancouver.

My colleague opposite advances all the usual arguments in favour of
the harm-reduction model and the continued use of hard-earned taxpayer
dollars to make it easier for junkies to practise their destructive
addiction to illegal drugs. I have not seen her column in advance, of
course, but I presume she will be citing the statistic that overdose
deaths have fallen while the safe-injection site has been in operation.

This, however, is a misleading finding. While some lives may have been
saved in the short term because of the site, the studies surrounding
the situation do not take into account the long-term implications of
an experimental program that does virtually nothing to help people to
kick their addictions.

So, as long as the safe-injection site continues to operate in a
vacuum, without any associated police crackdown on illegal possession
or any meaningful increase in treatment programs, all the site will
accomplish is to delay an addict's death by a few years.

Hard-core drug addiction kills, it's that simple. The safe-injection
site may keep the grim reaper at bay today but he'll inevitably claim
his victims tomorrow, and it'll be at a far younger age than that at
which non-addicts get to meet their maker.

This is the central life-and-death issue surrounding the
safe-injection site.

The aggressive panhandling and rampant thievery that accompanies
illegal drug use, as reprehensible as it is, is a secondary problem
that can be solved by dealing rationally with the first.

I say we should choose health over degradation and cut all funding to
the site.