ABBOTSFORD HARM REDUCTION REFUSAL LACKS COMPASSION

THE EDITOR:

Re: 'Ban on harm reduction may be bad news for addicts,' Times, Jan. 24.

I expect our elected officials to make informed decisions. These decisions
may be good or bad, depending on your point of view. But no decision should
be uninformed.

Unfortunately, the approach that city council has taken with regard to the
so-called harm reduction strategy is at best uninformed, at worst an
expression of the not-in-my-back-yard approach.

There is willingness to lament increased problems of prostitution and drug
abuse in our community but an unwillingness to address these problems locally.

Coun. Simon Gibson claims to speak for city council when he says the
members are unequivocally opposed to safe injection sites, needle
exchanges, free-standing methadone clinics and mobile drug dispensing units.

City council members fail to understand that drug abuse has serious social
implications that reach far beyond the individual abuser and his or her
family. Prostitution and property offences are a direct result of drug
addiction. Both problems are directly addressed through methadone clinics.
Further, methadone clinics take the individual out of the drug subculture
and allow him or her the re-entry into society.

It is at this stage that abstinence becomes an option. Further, addicts who
switch to methadone reduce the market and profit of drug dealers.

Safe injection sites and needle exchanges take people off the street,
reduce the risk of HIV infection through needle sharing and aim at
disposing used needles properly instead being found in school playgrounds.

The position of city council does not only lack in compassion for those
affected by drug addiction, it also provides no strategy to deal with
prostitution, property offences and health issues as they relate to drug
addiction.

Finally, in a community in which faith plays as important role as it does
in ours, I would expect city council to be concerned for those for whom
Jesus has compassion: those who are far off - the last, the least, the
lost, the lonely, and the little.

Christoph Reiners

Abbotsford