BLINDED BY THE RIGHT

Tony Clement's recent comments questioning the ethics of doctors who
support drug-harm-reduction initiatives like Vancouver's Insite is
yet another example of a disturbing aspect of the Conservative
(though not necessarily conservative) ideology. I mean, besides the
aspect that has them picking on some of Canadian society's weakest
members for political gain.

No, the specific aspect I'm referring to is the Tories'
neoconservative tendency to ignore things like experts and
statistical evidence that disagree with their misguidedly moralistic
ideology. In Conservative minds, the fact that 79 per cent of
Canadian physicians support harm-reduction measures is not an
indication of their efficacy or importance, but that four-fifths of
Canada's MDs are morally bankrupt.

This opinion, of course, stems from the fact the Conservatives
consider drug use a moral evil. Leaving aside the actual ethics of
drug use-not to mention the fact most of the "drug crime"
Conservatives are currently railing against exists solely because
drugs are illegal and therefore hard to obtain-Tory morals are all
well and good in the halls of power, but in the alleys and gutters of
the city, they do little but enhance misery and suffering.
Harm-reduction initiatives exist precisely because there are people
who, regardless of the moral implications, cannot quit drugs; rather
than let these people die wholesale, some have accepted reality and
are attempting to make sure they do nothing worse to themselves than
that thing they literally cannot quit doing. The immoral, pragmatic bastards.

And the Tory shell game on rehab and prison time is just as misguided
as Clement's moralizing. A quick glance at the American prison
system-one in 100 Americans incarcerated!-should put the lie to jail
time, and rehab, while it works for some, simply cannot entirely
remove the problem. Never mind, of course, the fact that rehab and
legal initiatives are already funded at a level many times higher
than even the most prominent of harm-reduction programs.

The Conservative resistance to harm reduction is nothing but
practiced ignorance: exactly the kind of thing we can expect from moral idiots.