Readers weigh in on harm reduction
Last week, I wrote that unless we use Singapore’s solution to hang drug pushers, we will never defeat the opioid epidemic in North America. This week, a strong response from readers.
A police officer in a major Canadian city writes: “I wonder why we have a law that says a drug is illegal, yet the law supervises injection sites to consume illegal drugs.” He adds: “Unfortunately, our lawmakers do not have the gonads to protect citizens against flagrant abuses.”
A Times Colonist reader writes: “I, too, have been in Singapore. I recently talked with a medical student who was horrified I supported hanging drug dealers. He wanted life imprisonment, but why pay for their room and board? Unfortunately, our society uses Band-Aid solutions.”
From Kelowna: “We are well on the way to a medical tsunami. These injection sites are nothing more than drug-facilitation centres.”
But not all readers sent me roses. C.K. writes: “What about the role played by doctors and pharmaceutical companies in opioid addiction? Should we put these people to death as well?”
Other critics said: “Why don’t we stop helping people with heart disease, diabetes and lung cancer? After all, they usually cause their own destruction.”
But more than 90 per cent of readers sent their approval.
I think the ministers of Health and Justice could learn a lot from reading these e-mails.
For instance, from Nanaimo: “I strongly object to my money being spent on free needles and free injection sites for addicts. Why should we support them? Don’t they understand that drugs kill? The politicians and do-gooders are building themselves lucrative empires. Let’s arrest any drug dealer and inject them with fentanyl! The money saved could be spent on low-cost housing for the homeless.”
Others worried that today there is no such thing as personal responsibility. And that the remark of Singapore’s authorities that North Americans had become “irresponsibly permissive” was putting it mildly.
I wish to thank all those who took the time to contact me. You provided several hours of thoughtful reading.