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.