Pubdate: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 Source: Salt Lake Tribune (UT) Copyright: 2001 The Salt Lake Tribune Contact: http://www.sltrib.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/383 Author: Tony Bridges, Knight Ridder News Service Bookmarks: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction) http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone) http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange) http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Safe Injecting Rooms) FRANCE TOUTS A DRUG POLICY OF PRAGMATISM PARIS -- When it comes to mandating treatment for drug addicts, French leaders have a tip for Americans: They've been there, done that and found out it's not the answer. Not by itself, anyway. "We tried that in France already," said Nicole Maestracci, head of the nation's drug-control office. "Compulsory treatment doesn't work. If you take care of the drug problem but don't give a person a chance to change his life, he will go back to the drugs." Instead, French authorities have taken what they consider a more pragmatic approach to drug policy. While voluntary and court-ordered treatment, as well as education and prevention, are still part of the national strategy, they've also implemented a controversial policy known as harm reduction. Harm reduction is simply the philosophy that people are going to use drugs no matter what anyone does. So, to keep those people from succumbing to the dangers of use -- overdoses, AIDS and criminal lifestyles -- the government gives them a means to satisfy their habit safely. In France, a nation with an estimated 175,000 heroin addicts, that means needle exchanges, government-subsidized Subutex (a methadone alternative) and safe places to shoot up. Maestracci said it has contributed to fewer overdose deaths and a decreasing AIDS infection rate. France also has a much lower crime rate than the United States, which experts there attribute, in part, to the easy availability of Subutex. In 1970, lawmakers passed an act that mandated treatment options for those arrested on drug use charges. That sparked 20 years of arguments over the best way to implement the policy. Then, in the early '90s, with AIDS becoming a national epidemic, France began to consider needle exchanges. That led to talk of heroin substitutions and eventually to the new policy of harm reduction. But Florida state drug czar Jim McDonough said he doesn't think it is anything more than a temporary solution. "It's a formula for disaster to buy into the harm-reductionist approach," he said. McDonough said programs such as needle exchanges would lead to drug substitution, the same way it did in France, and that would be a mistake. He said drug maintenance using methadone or Subutex is just another way for people to be addicted, sometimes for a lifetime. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake