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Harm Reduction Reaches Its Illogical Conclusion

March 17, 2002 – Those who advocate harm reduction as a valid approach to treating drug addiction have crossed over the line, according to two stories in the press this week.

Switzerland, which embraced harm reduction in the early 1990s, has gradually adopted the following policies:

First, the nation created needle exchange programs, in which addicts could trade dirty needles for clean ones. Next came "safe" injection rooms, places where addicts inject drugs in state-sanctioned clinics. More recently, Switzerland has conducted heroin maintenance trials, supplying addicts with heroin to inject in clinics supervised by medical personnel. The trials have been criticized for their lack of scientific validity by the World Health Organization and others (see "Prescribing Heroin," Science, July 23, 1999, which can be read at http://www.nationalfamilies.org/publications/by_nfia/prescribing_heroin.html).

Now comes word from National Public Radio that Zurich has opened two medically supervised "safe inhalation" rooms where heroin and crack cocaine addicts can smoke their drugs with city government's encouragement and approval.

Meanwhile, the government of the Netherlands has asked Parliament to endorse its proposal to hand out free heroin to Dutch addicts, according to an article in the British newspaper, The Guardian ("Dutch Back Free Heroin for Addicts," March 14, 2002). The proposal is causing controversy among Dutch citizens who observe that some people with diseases such as cancer cannot obtain lifesaving but expensive medicines, yet the government proposes to pass out free heroin to addicts.

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