When helping addicts actually hurts them

At a time when you can walk around downtown Seattle and parts of the University District and spot an alarming number of used needles laying on the ground, a two-month old program by the People’s Harm Reduction Alliance is going out and illegally giving between 25 and 30 free meth pipes to meth addicts.

The argument is that by doing so, they’re cutting down on shared needles which can lead to HIV. I certainly don’t want to see addicts (or anyone) get HIV, and if it’s being prevented with this program, that’s obviously a positive. However, while well-intended, this action, I fear, is as immoral as it is illegal.

If you’re going to be in healthcare (whether it’s a nurse, a doctor, a pharmacist, or a nonprofit healthcare worker) and help look out for people who can’t look out for themselves – the addicts – you have an absolute moral obligation to actually help them. Keeping them from HIV isn’t helping them if they’re still addicted to meth; giving them free anything is enabling their addictive and deadly behavior.

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Congrats: you prevented the addict in need of help from getting HIV, but you allowed them to get high and suffer from psychosis. These folks are now walking around the streets of Seattle having lost contact with reality and are experiencing intense delusions, extreme paranoia, OCD, and hallucinations. Meth users have the tendency to get incredibly aggressive and violent. Will you be helping out the victims of a meth addict’s aggression?

Congrats: you prevented the addict in need of help from getting HIV, but you also helped them engage in an addiction that can lead to organ failure and brain damage.

Congrats: you prevented the addict in need of help from getting HIV, but you also helped them engage in a behavior where they hallucinate bugs crawling under their skin. It’s so intense they end up digging into their skin to get them out. That leads to sores, usually pustulous open sores, that can’t heal because of what meth does to the immune system.

Congrats: you gave them free pipes and didn’t actually help them get off meth.

“By engaging them, we gave people self worth… Give back people’s desire to live better in life and live better in society,” People’s Harm Reduction Alliance member Shilo Murphy said to KOMO.

No, you haven’t because, as it turns out, when they’re tweaking out three days straight, they don’t realize you’re engaging them beyond getting freebies. Engaging them and giving them self-worth doesn’t actually cure addiction. Is your heart in the right place? Absolutely. Are you helping them avoid HIV? Yes. Is it doing anything to address the larger issue of addiction? No.