Community forum - Harm reduction at a crossroads?

There’s been no shortage of media coverage on the future of the Vancouver safe-injection site Insite and the federal government’s approach to harm reduction programs for people with addictions. Supporters cite evidence supporting its value as a treatment approach. Opponents feel that publicly-funded harm reduction leads to a ‘soft on crime’ stance.

These are the issues that leading experts will explore in CAMH’s 2008 Pamela Fralick Community Information Forum on Addiction, “Balancing Public Health and Drug Control Policies: The Future of Harm Reduction.” The Forum takes place on Thursday, May 22, 2008, 6:30 to 9 pm in the Staging Room, The Living Arts Centre, 4141 Living Arts Drive, Mississauga.

This year’s Pamela Fralick Forum is presented in partnership with the Region of Peel Public Health and with Peel HIV/AIDS Network.

Harm reduction – is drug use a social reality?

Many people think harm reduction refers only to initiatives targeting the use of opiates like heroin, but there are several well-established harm reduction programs for alcohol and tobacco.

“Harm reduction has a pragmatic orientation,” CAMH’s President and CEO Dr. Paul Garfinkel wrote in a Toronto Star editorial in 2006. “It accepts that drug use is a social reality, and that alternative strategies are needed for those people who are not ready or willing to stop their substance use, or for whom treatment, prevention or criminal sanctions have not been effective.”

Dr. Ernest Drucker, Professor in the Departments of Epidemiology, Family and Social Medicine, and Psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, and Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and the University of British Columbia, will deliver a presentation about how the AIDS pandemic reveals a vital link between public health and drug policies.

Drug use has now become the decisive element in the spread of this epidemic in many regions of the world. In this context, the future of harm reduction is the most decisive element of a global struggle to come to grips with drugs and the terrible harms that can be associated with them.

Joining Dr. Drucker will be a panel including:

Dr. Pat Erickson, CAMH Senior Scientist in Public Health and Regulatory Policy with the Social, Prevention and Health Policy Research Department
Karen Parsons, Peel Addiction Assessment and Referral Centre (PAARC)
Tom Regehr, CAST Canada, Self-help group founder who overcame addiction and homelessness
Susan Shepherd, Toronto Drug Strategy

Gail Czukar, CAMH Executive Vice President, Policy Education & Health Promotion, will serve as moderator for the event.

“Crucially, the drug policies and practices of some leadership nations - including Canada, Australia, the UK, and The Netherlands - have become global role models in medicine and public health-oriented policies towards drugs,” Dr. Drucker says.

“That is why local drug policies here in Canada are so important in a wider context than the local political considerations that so often dominate discussions of what to do about drugs. How may developed countries with fine medical and public health systems of their own, and deep commitments to social justice and human rights worldwide, use these strengths and leadership to minimize the harms of drugs for all, protecting their own citizens and lighting a path for other nations?”

Reception: 6:30 pm • Program: 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Free admission and parking • Refreshments will be served
RSVP preferred by May 15 to 416 535-8501, ext. 1898

In partnership with community organizations, the Pamela Fralick Community Information Forum on Addiction is part of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)'s broader public education efforts aimed at increasing public understanding of addiction and mental health issues and helping Ontarians to make informed decisions about their health care.

Pamela Fralick is a former Chair and member of the CAMH Board of Trustees. Ms. Fralick has spent the last twenty-five years pursuing issues of social concern, primarily in the health field. With formal education in research and clinical psychology, she devoted many years to the field of addictions, working in front-line treatment, research, education, policy and program development. This annual forum, named in her honour, is part of her continuing efforts to support those who live with mental illness and addictions and educate the public about this health issue that effects one in five Canadians.

Community forum - Harm reduction at a crossroads?

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