MORE HARM THAN GOOD

I agree with Rev. Harry Lehotsky (Harm reduction is not the right
road, Dec. 12) that harm reduction totally ignores and actually
sanctions the "source of the harm." In their quest to reduce harm,
these naive social activists are causing much more harm than they are
reducing by "normalizing" what is not always socially acceptable.

Harm reduction is based on the premise that certain activities that
are "socially acceptable" in societies, like gambling, drinking, and
drug use, are not to be judged. But failing to judge or adequately
address the source of the harm is part of normalizing it and making it
appear socially acceptable.

Look what has happened with gambling in Canada. Harm reduction applied
to gambling, especially electronic gambling machines, has allowed the
provinces to exploit its own citizens and ignore the source of harm,
which is obviously the machines. Now, everyone says that gambling is
socially acceptable because it's operated and regulated by governments
which acknowledge a certain level of harm will happen but their
revenues are more important. In this case, harm reduction has been
used to rationalize governments exploiting its own citizens.

It's really time to form a network of professionals who endorse
"precautionary principles" that dictate that you do everything
possible to stop harm at the source, not collude (intentionally or
not) with the source of the harm.

These harm reductionists need to seriously examine the ethics of their
approach. Their intentions may be good but in many cases they're
enabling crimes, corruption and exploitation of the most vulnerable in
our society.

Roger Horbay,

Elora, Ont.

(Not everyone agrees ...)