The surgery was a success, but…

1368951062alarabalaanPublic health workers are declaring their harm reduction approach a success:

Harm reduction — not a war on drugs — has reduced illicit drug use and improved public safety in what was once Ground Zero for an HIV and overdose epidemic that cost many lives, says a 15-year study of drug use in Vancouver’s impoverished Downtown Eastside.


“A public health emergency was declared here because we saw the highest rates of HIV infection ever seen outside of sub-Saharan Africa — in this community. At the same time, the community was being levelled by an overdose epidemic,” Kerr said after presenting his findings to members of the group affected at a community centre in the heart of the neighbourhood.


Kerr goes on to pull the scientific evidence card, casting critics as stupid, unethical and indifferent to death:




There was some disappointing news for health officials in the study.


What’s that saying? The surgery was a success, but the patient died.

Now, I’m not saying that law enforcement is a better approach and I’m not saying that reduced disease and crime are unimportant, they are important. However, one of my concerns about public health approaches is that they are often designed to serve the public rather than the individual. When the death rate is only slightly affected, and addicts are still using and homeless, who’s best served by these outcomes of reduced disease and crime?

Harm reduction is not enough. In and of itself, it is not bad.

It’s just bad when the public and professionals declare victory while addicts continue to suffer terrible quality of life.

How much money was spent to achieve these outcomes? How else might that money have been spent?

Why not recovery?