In deriding harm reduction programs as false compassion, Joseph Perkins confuses moral outrage with effective public health policies. In industrialized countries, the majority of heterosexual HIV transmissions among women can be traced back to intravenous drug use.
These HIV transmissions are easily preventable as they are a direct result of zero tolerance drug policies which prohibit the sale of needles. The War on Some Drugs is best described as maximum harm. Under current drug policy kids have an easier time buying illegal drugs than legal ones, organized crime flourishes, and addicts risk overdose from dubious black market drugs. Harm reduction approaches to public health problems like addiction are desperately needed.
By registering hard drug addicts and providing standardized doses in a treatment setting, the public health problems associated with addiction could be eliminated. If able to purchase drugs at cost instead of inflated black market prices, addicts would no longer need to commit crimes to feed their habits. More important, organized crime would lose a lucrative client base. This would render illegal drug trafficking unprofitable, destroy the black market and thereby spare future generations the horror of addiction. This harm reduction plan may sound defeatist, but if permanently protecting future generations from hard drugs is defeat, I for one am willing to surrender.