Catholic stance to harm minimization of drug use

[divinefaith]

Divine,

I believe that the issue is that most of those that ascribe to the disease model demand abstinence in a therapeutic relationship. Harm reduction suggests meeting the client where they are to engage them to decide in time that abstinence or moderation may be more frutiful.

Harm reduction in the bigger picture has been extended to the clean needles, condoms for AIDS and this is not in the therapeutic relationship.

You’re point is that harm reduction in therapy might actually be more effective than harm reduction used alone in the wider social context.

 

[Bill_7154]

The Church supports drug/alcohol harm minimization… Correct or not?

I don’t know. But I am for ending drug prohibition (which has nothing to do with my stance of drug use/abuse- I am against that) because that policy has proven ineffective and is very costly. Drugs are cheaper and more widely avaiable than they were when the ‘drug war’ started back around 1970. It’s also easier for children to get drugs than it is for them to get alcohol. If drugs were legalized or decriminalized and controlled by the government rather than by murderous drug lords and terrorist organizations money would be taken out of the hands of murderers as the suppliers and be replaced with pharmacists as suppliers. The actual potency of the drug and the accuracy of what the pill actually is would be always known which would increase safety for drug users. One million something less people would be put in prison each year saving a whole lot of money. Murders between different suppliers, customers, and the police would essentially disappear. And armed robberies, home invasions, and other robberies and shoplifting would decrease dramatically as drugs for even heavy users would be affordable (almost all of the cost of hard drugs is due to them being prohibited, putting suppliers lives at risk re: being murdered or facing very long prison sentences- importing heroin and cocaine would essentially be the same as importing coffee (and whatever tax the gov’t decided to put on it). It’s common sense that people don’t rob to support heavy addiction to alcohol or cigarettes. The homeless and those without jobs who are heavily addicted to either or both alcohol and cigarettes don’t do robberies to get money for those drugs because they are legal and therefore affordable. Women don’t prostitute for money for either of those drug either. Addicts to cigarettes (nicotine being the most addictive drug out of all drugs) and/or alcohol manage to get by without robbing to get money to fund their addictions.

So despite how scary I initially felt when considering in my mind contemplating legalizing or at ealst decriminalizaing drugs, ending drug prohibtion, I came to the conclusion that it would be better for both society and for all drug users/abuser. We would be much more able to keep drugs out of the hands of children than we are now. Most adults won’t purchase alcohol for children. I assume even less adults would purchase drugs for children if they were legalized for those 21 and older. Punnishments for certain behaviors fueled by drug use could be put in place the same way laws stand for punnishment for certain behaviors fueled by alcohol use.

I also ask all the parents on this forum this question:

If you discovered that one of your children was using/abusing drugs would you call the police or would you call a priest/rehab/therapist/doctor/etc as a step to address the issue?

I can’t emphasize enough how initially the thought of ending drug prohibtion was very scary to me. But as I explored the issue more and listened to the arguments for ending drug prohibtion made by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, LEAP, www.leap.cc eventually I came to the conclusion that they were correct. And that ending drug prohibtion has NOTHTING to do with addressing societies drug problemt, but it will have a huge impact on societies CRIME and VIOLENCE problem. And we could be much more effective in keeping drugs out of the hands of children. As it stands now drugs are easier for children to get than alcohol. I watched the video’s at www.leap.cc , police officers advocating this and explaining this. And eventually I agreed with them, crime and violence would have a big drop, we wouldn’t be tossing Billions of money down the toilet every year to fund the ‘drug war’ that is a complete and dismal failure.

Police would be freed up to focus on crime and violence, and we as a society could then foucs on addressing the drug problem (utilizing doctors, therapists, etc) as it’s clear that police and prisons are not really at all effective maens of addressing societies drug problem. I’m now convinced that this would benefit society and also drug users/abusers. I hope that more people become open to exploring the idea of ending drug prohibition, despite how scary the thought of doing so is. I started looking at, and listening to the FACTS as LEAP explains them, took emotion and the programming I was subjected to over the past 4 decades supporting the drug war, and came to the conclusion that society, police officers, and addicts would benefit as they would all be saifer if drug prohibtion was ended. This way we could get rid of our crime and violence problem (not totally obviously), keep drugs out of the hands of children, amd focus on addressing societies drug problem.

God Bless,
Bill