REVEREND PREACHES CHRISTIAN ASPECTS TO HARM REDUCTION

When bewildered people ask Rev. Edwin Sanders how a man of God could
possibly run a needle-exchange program for addicts out of his Nashville
church, the preacher man has the same response each time.

"'What I have to offer people requires that they are alive," Sanders says.

It's a principle integral to the concept of harm reduction, the
controversial fourth pillar of Vancouver's drug policy that more than 1,200
delegates have been discussing at this week's conference.

Harm reduction has its detractors - many see the Downtown Eastside's
supervised injection site and the divisive prescribed heroin program as
condoning and facilitating drug use, for example.

But Sanders says harm reduction still has a place within Christian teachings.

"I believe the love that Jesus teaches is big enough to include everybody
and everything," says Sanders, who possesses a booming voice. "The Jesus
that I know was not an alienating person whatsoever."

He compares harm reduction in drug use to pre-marital sex.

"I would argue that young people should delay their sexual debut," Sanders
say. "But at the same time, I know that 65 per cent of the young people I
see [have already had sex]. For me to not give them the kind of information
that would lead them to behave in a way that is not life-threatening is the
responsibility of my part."