By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
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Drug harm reduction programs do not encourage drug use or ask social workers to give out drugs, Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday amid accusations that Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) had advocated giving out illicit drugs and needles at community centers. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀), a spokeswoman for Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) re-election campaign, on Friday said that “community centers are where people dance and exercise,” but they will be turned into places where social workers give out drugs and create addicts. Earlier, Chiang’s campaign accused Shen, the Democratic Progressive Party’s Taipei mayoral candidate, of advocating the distribution of drugs and clean needles at community centers.
Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang speaks to reporters in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Lo Pi, Taipei Times
Shen later said that his comments merely mentioned a program that has already been implemented elsewhere in Taiwan. The Taipei-based National Union of Professional Social Worker Associations, Taiwan on Friday called on Lee to publicly apologize for her comments.
“Social workers are not drug providers,” the association said in a statement. “Please stop misleading the public about professional social work.”Lee’s remarks falsely linked the professional role of social workers and drug harm reduction policies, which can easily lead to public misunderstanding and distrust of frontline social workers, it said.“The social work profession has long been dedicated to substance addiction prevention and treatment, psychosocial support, family relationship restoration, community resource linkage and social reintegration services,” it said, adding that describing social work as providing drugs and creating addicts is inconsistent with the professional duties of personnel in the work. In international public health, harm reduction programs minimize health and social risks associated with drug use, including disease transmission, overdoses, family dysfunction and social exclusion, the association said.“Drug harm reduction does not mean encouraging drug use, nor does it mean providing drugs indiscriminately,” it said, adding that public figures should avoid spreading false information that undermines the social work profession and the people they serve.“I must emphasize again that harm reduction programs do not encourage drug use and programs do not ask social workers to give out drugs,” Shih said yesterday. “I must solemnly state: Do not let unnecessary [political] mud-slinging distort or disrupt the programs.”Harm reduction programs include syringe provision, methadone maintenance treatment, infection screening and social reintegration, work that relies on the collaboration of many professionals, he said. The programs have yielded significant results, he added. People should stop interfering with the work of frontline professional workers, Shih said. Lee yesterday said that she agrees with the association that effective anti-drug policies should be grounded in scientific evidence, cross-disciplinary collaboration and a comprehensive social support system. She said she firmly opposes a model in which community centers provide drugs and clean needles to drug users. Social workers are not drug providers, she said, adding that their professional roles and responsibilities should not be undermined, and community safety should not be jeopardized. Addiction prevention and harm reduction should follow the practice of providing methadone substitution therapy through medical institutions, where people must take the medication on-site under direct medical supervision and are not allowed to leave with it, Lee said. The roles and responsibilities of medical professionals, social workers, drug abuse prevention centers and other specialists should also be clearly defined, she said, adding that cross-disciplinary collaboration and a clear division of responsibilities are essential to minimize the harm drugs cause to people and society. Additional reporting by Liu Wan-lin