HARM REDUCTION DECISION 'UNINFORMED'

Editor, The News:

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 in regards 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 that
council is unequivocally opposed to safe injection sites, needle
exchanges, free-standing methadone clinics and mobile drug dispensing
units.

City council fails 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