In 2003, I had the enormous privilege of meeting Dr. Hedy Fry, who is the Member of Parliament for Vancouver Centre. As a physician, she brings an invaluable perspective to the range of issues raised in the House of Commons. About two weeks ago, she wrote a guest editorial for the Calgary Herald, responding to an editorial by Susan Martinuk for Vancouver’s safe injection site to be closed.
You have to read the editorial, but here was what struck me, perhaps the most: “[Susan] Martinuk holds that this issue should be judged morally and not scientifically. As a physician whose professional ethic — do no harm — is based on harm reduction, my view is quite different. I believe that to deny proven life-saving assistance to those who are vulnerable, simply because we disapprove of their lifestyles, is perhaps the greatest immorality of all.”
I have spent quite a bit of time these past few months in West Virginia, and I have been disheartened by how severe and pervasive substance abuse has become, especially among young people.
I have never taken a controlled substance, and I have never had the urge to try. I do not completely understand the desire others have, partly because I have a fundamental need to be in control of my actions and aware of my surroundings. But I do recognize that, once you move from desire to use, there is a very thin line separating use from addiction. While I believe the use of drugs is an issue of individual responsibility, I truly believe that Dr. Fry has made a critical point when it comes to addiction: “Addiction is a medical problem. Extensive medical research has established that over the last 20 years. Effective solutions must therefore be based on good public health principles. [...] Those who exploit the addicted by selling and trafficking in illicit drugs are criminals and should be targeted with effective criminal and law enforcement strategies.”
In Canada, and in the United States, the “War on Drugs” seems to be failing. By prosecuting use, relentlessly, we take key resources away from preventing and stopping drug trafficking. If we focussed on preventing and rehabilitating users, rather than criminalizing them, we might stand a chance at saving — rather than further ruining — lives. The safe injection site project in Vancouver is an important — and effective — spoke in what should become a model strategy for curbing illicit drug trade.