Put in simple terms harm reduction is meeting people where they are at. In the homeless service's space, harm reduction also means being sober is not a requirement for services such as housing. My recent visit with Donny in Calgary is a near text book example. Donny was drinking and using on the streets for over 20 years, but when he got into housing and was given some dignity Donny got sober all on his own.
But Donny was also lucky. He never really got into very hard drugs, so it was easier for him to get sober. Often this is challenging for 'normal' people to understand: there is a point where drugs take over a persons life. They lose all reason and self-worth. Their whole existence revolves around getting another fix. Often this path takes a person down an unthinkable path of self-destruction. People end up doing things to survive that are horrible. HIV , Hepatitis C, and drug related deaths become a very serious public safety issue for all of us. One story I heard from a few different people is addicts using puddles of urine to "fix" their heroin. The thought makes me cringe, but I know what drugs did to me when I was heavily addicted. I needed drugs more than I needed air and I would do anything to get them.
My second city in Canada was Vancouver and I spent a day in Vancouver's Downtown East side. I have always wanted to visit a "wet shelter" (a shelter that provides alcohol) to see for myself. I call myself a 'liberal redneck' so I do lean towards a harm-reduction model. Mostly because I work with homeless people that are so addicted they will never find help in an abstinence-based program (shelters that you have to be sober to get in to) so they are literally dying on the streets. But still I wanted to see these models myself. I wanted to talk to staff and interview people being helped. Well, I never planned on this, but on that first day in Vancouver I found myself standing in the middle of Insite, a supervised injection site. I'll be candid, even as an ex-drug addict it freaked me out. Not so much because of watching people "shoot up", but mostly because I didn't expect it. I didn't even know such places exist. I am actually glad it happened that way so I didn't have any preconceived notions, which is actually why there is controversy around it.
The people who have problems with the harm-reduction model just have never seen Hell like I have. It's easy to judge from a distance, but once you're on the streets of a 'skid row' type area watching addicts do unimaginable things to survive, your eyes open up and perceptions change. Please note I do understand why people have issues with harm reduction. And it's not that people are bad or uneducated. They just have not had a personal connection to this issue like watching an addict shoot up in his neck. Meera Bai, a Christian nurse and harm-reduction advocate said something really interesting to me. She said "we all practice harm reduction when we brush our teeth or take vitamins".
So I am in Calgary and I get this tweet from Meera Bai saying something like "I am a Christian outreach nurse and I support harm reduction". Obviously, I had to meet this amazing woman and get her story. Meera wrote a post for Christian Week (the only Christian publication that would publish her story) titled: Why I help addicts shoot up. Please read that powerful post and watch this powerful interview.
I put the word "grace" in the last post on hardlynormal.com because Meera believes, and so do I, that a supervised injection site is God's grace. Meera went on to say Jesus does not look at our sins, and no matter how dirty, nasty and ugly we get, Jesus saves our lives. I know helping someone inject drugs goes against conventional Christian beliefs -- but does it really? I am for anything and everything that will save lives. The harm-reduction model in every community it's used in has documented proof of saving both lives and money while improving public health. WWJD -- What would Jesus do? I believe Jesus would and does support harm reduction. I will tell you this, I saw more unconditional love at Insite than I have at most of the churches I visit.
Follow Mark Horvath on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hardlynormal
HAMS--Alcohol Harm Reduction Support
What is Harm Reduction and How Do I Practice It?
Harm Reduction & Drug Use | Public Health Program | Open Society ...
Your methods may actually be making things worse.
It prolongs addiction...
Look at the horrible record for methadone...
Addiction is three fold, mental, physical and spiritual...
Until you face ALL of those you will continue to be under the lash of addiction.
Nothing will change....
Thank you for your comments. Unfortunately, the consequence in this case is death, which doesn't change destructive behavior, it ends a life. You can check out the comment I posted to Chris below for an explanation of this. It has been shown that InSite does not increase addiction rates. It might prolong addiction in that it staves off death in the hopes that healing will happen and love can be experienced. This is often spiritual - many injection drug users have an active spirituality. If the goal of life is to be clean, and be productive, then injection drug users often fail miserably. But Christians see the goal of life as to join God in His Kingdom as it spreads on earth, even in the little glimpses that we are able to see Him in. I've seen those glimpses at InSite, and I've seen God working there. InSite brings healing to all aspects, and it's beautiful.
You have to take all 12 steps...
In some cases addiction leads to death...
In other cases that same addiction leads to the addict continuing their bad behavior and destroying lives all around them...
This can manifest itself in the form of crimes to buy drugs or being a drag on their family, both of which are a drag on society itself...
That is not OK...
While you feel as if you are providing a service to these addicts you are in fact nothing more than an enabler.
You are making it easier for them to stay addicted and you may be enabling them in their death.
Addiction is ugly, life threatening and horrible...
It should stay that way...
Why???
Because intensive counseling is needed...typically the pain comes from a horrible childhood...and that means child trauma pain - either from the family or something that occurred outside of the home. It's up to every family to help their addicted children. Never, ever, ever give up - if you love them. Get with a good trauma psychologist - someone who is trained in the field of Somatic Experiencing. Also, find a good neropsychologist to have diagnostic work-ups done on their brains, too. It's well worth the investment, if you love your children.
For those of you who have no compassion, you need to pray more and ask God for forgiveness. How dare you judge others?????
If you want to help read Matthew 25, get off your butt, climb down out of your ivory tower and go over to North County Solutions for Change in Vista CA (Chris Megison of above is the director) and see lives being put back together again. There people are being helped out of the cycle of addicion and homelessness through being clean and sober and being productive members of society.
I admire the Solutions For Change approach because it is honest and gives people back their dignity as they work (yes, dear Ivory tower thinkers I used the four letter word WORK) to regain their lives and become good parents to their children.
The people who are helping addicts and alcoholics die by letting them continue in their addiction are guilty of conspiracy to murder -- if not in the courts, then in the eyes of God.
The people who are helping addicts & alcoholics recover were mentioned today in the reading from Romans, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring
please see my response to Chris Megison's comment.
Some people will never respond to the "normal" typical recovery program. Yes, the abstinence based programs work for some, but there are many more that an abstinence based program will not work for - and those people will dies on the streets. That's a fact. You bring up the bible, isn't Jesus about saving lives? If you study the facts you'll see the harm reduction model does just that - saves lives.
I think the thing that needs fleshing out here is the concept that supervising injection "lets" people continue in their addiction. There is an element of lack of control here - just as God gave human beings free will, so we also do not control one another's decisions. What we can do is help them survive another day with the hopes that they will make better decisions, or at the very least, experience agape love before they die. Supervising injection recognizes that human beings will make decisions that are not good - we all do. Bringing people back from an overdose or watching them die are the two options that Christians have with users who are not ready for treatment yet - because Christians have to be present either way. If we can bring them back, it is immoral not to.
I don't believe that recovery from addiction occurs just because another human being demonstrated empathy, or love etc. I believe that when the addict is ready to try and start getting their life together, and out of the nightmare of addiction, having someone like you describe available is a help. So I think the first step is the addicts, and the second step depends on them being alive (perhaps because they've been to supervised injection), and coming into contact with the people who can help them.
I have a client in LA that has sclerosis of the liver. The sores on his leg are so bad he cannot wear pants. He wraps bandanas around them so people cannot see. It's horrible. He knows he is dying but cannot stop drinking on his own. He needs help. But alcohol has taken over his life and a normal detox will now work. But because LA does not offer a harm reduction model he will die on the streets.
The reason a supervised injection site was started was because people were dying. I've heard stories of people fixing their heroin from urine puddles. That's what addiction does - it takes over a life so there is no normal reasoning. I have personally seen the "normal" recovery model not be effective with the worst of the worst type addicts.
If you do a little research the numbers speak for themselves. harm reduction models such as Insite save lives and money. We can argue till we are blue in the face, but the facts show it's not only needed - it's a success.
Brain Development & Addiction with Gabor Mate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpHiFqXCYKc&feature=channel_video_title
There's one missing element from the discussion here, and that's the power in the blood of Christ. Not to sound overly Christian, but our whole faith is based on the transformative nature inherent in grace. When grace is extended to us, it changes everything about us. Harm reduction is inherently about grace. It is meeting people wherever they are, and showing them that we do care if they live or die. Meeting an addict who is shooting up in an alley using their own urine, handing them clean water, and saying "Listen to me. You are worth something" really matters. Even if they can't comprehend that on a level that would bring them to treatment yet, if you say it often enough, either you'll get there in the end or you'll at least live out the Good News (that they are loved) along the way.
What about the kids that he can’t take care of anymore because his addiction has crippled him? We have to keep him alive until he can make a decision to be a parent to his kids, so we should pay to take care of his kids, right? What about the housing and food that he needs because he spends all his money on heroin. We have to keep him alive long enough so he can make a decision, so we should pay for his housing and food as well?
The most compassionate thing you could do for an active addict is NOT to get in the way of the God given natural consequences of their addiction. I can share with you personal testimonials from 100's of addicts that will tell you exactly this. They got clean because the pain, the consequence, the sadness and the loss became so great that they felt like they HAD to stop using. Harm reduction injection centre's interfere with the natural consequences of addiction and therefore prolong the addiction and all the associated negative impacts on the addict and those around him/her that go with it.
And the idea that the US government profits off the trafficking and distribution of drugs ignores how much money is spent on stopping it, and also the fact that it would be much, much cheaper to do it "in house".
A second benefit is that these injecting rooms put addicts in contact with the medical profession in such a way that they do not feel judged, and are comfortable. A number of these addicts will get referrals to treatment, and will eventually give up drugs.
In these ways, the injecting rooms are one of the many aspects that can be used in programs to treat addiction.
This is not about enablement. It is about the health profession realising that people *do* use drugs, and trying to keep them alive until such time as they can get over their problem.
and tried smoking a cigarette, it tasted lousy, so I never smoked again. Then in my 20's a
"well meaning" friend tried to get me to smoke Marijuana, told her that I couln'd afford
regular cigarettes, and certainly could not afford Marijuana. Just say NO - in the long
run it's easier than saying YES.
Drugs like heroin or meth NEVER improve your life, and frequently ruin it, and quickly too. But the neurological changes that overpower the addict turns them into something their former selves could not recognize.
The point here is compassion. Just last night I had dinner with an addiction counsellor who told us that the heroin addicts she works with claim that heroin is unlike anything else, and though they're clean, not a day goes by that the memory of the high heroin provided is like a gaping hole in their lives.
I'd rather assist someone to get their fix than have them be a menace to public health and safety. Just in utilitarian terms alone, the fixed cost is less in the former response than the latter.
One of the key difficulties with giving up heroin and probably some other drugs, is that the brain can be deficient of dopamine for quite some time - maybe a year - after quitting. This means that people are just slightly depressed the whole time, until they've gone with out for a long period.
BTW: as far as addictions go, I've noticed that gambling addicts I've met have all the same addictive traits as heroin addicts - including anxiety, anticipation, desperation for a fix, and post use depression.