NO QUICK FIX FOR DRUG ADDICTION

Re: "Not an easy fix for drug addiction," Nov. 21.

The debate over setting up safe injection sites for those addicted to
illegal drugs illustrates the incompatibility of the punishment approach
and the harm reduction/medical approach to drug addiction.

The harm reduction approach gives priority to the health and welfare of the
addicts. The punishment approach gives priority to the self-righteousness
of the non-addicted majority.

The punishment approach is predicated on the belief that society and
civilization would collapse if elected governments gave up the crusade
against sinful pleasures. "Tolerating drug abuse and supporting addiction
sends the wrong message" -- that our virtuous society is giving up on
virtue by surrendering to vice. It is destroying civilization by weakening
its greatest strength, the puritan and Victorian attitude towards sinful
pleasures.

The debate about injection sites revolves around the question of whether we
defend the integrity of our society and civilization by giving addicts a
well-deserved miserable life of hellish punishment in prison, or whether we
"tolerate" drug abuse and "support" addiction through the harm
reduction/medical approach because we no longer believe that the
puritan/Victorian crusade against pleasure is vital for the preservation of
our society and civilization.

It is interesting that no government is more committed to the puritan
crusade -- and to discouraging other governments from abandoning it -- than
is the constitutionally-mandated "secular state" -- government of the
United States.

Is the U.S. government prepared to allow Canadian municipal, provincial and
the federal levels of government a free debate on the subject of illegal
drugs, or would it intervene with economic and other pressures to "punish"
Canada if the puritan crusader side loses the debate to the medical side?

D. I. Solomon, Victoria.