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Plainsman1963

Reverend Preaches Christian Aspects To Harm Reduction
Irwin Loy | 24 Hours Vancouver | 05/05/2006

When bewildered people ask Rev. Edwin Sanders how a man of God could possibly run a needle-exchange program for addicts out of his Nashville church, the preacher man has the same response each time.

"'What I have to offer people requires that they are alive," Sanders says.

It's a principle integral to the concept of harm reduction, the controversial fourth pillar of Vancouver's drug policy that more than 1,200 delegates have been discussing at this week's conference.

Harm reduction has its detractors - many see the Downtown Eastside's supervised injection site and the divisive prescribed heroin program as condoning and facilitating drug use, for example.

But Sanders says harm reduction still has a place within Christian teachings.

"I believe the love that Jesus teaches is big enough to include everybody and everything," says Sanders, who possesses a booming voice. "The Jesus that I know was not an alienating person whatsoever."

He compares harm reduction in drug use to pre-marital sex.

"I would argue that young people should delay their sexual debut," Sanders say. "But at the same time, I know that 65 per cent of the young people I see [have already had sex]. For me to not give them the kind of information that would lead them to behave in a way that is not life-threatening is the responsibility of my part."

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dedbr

and theres always going to be someone that has something negative to say.....





(Sarcasm starts now...) Yep, their right. Just turn those heroin addicts back out on the streets to suffer thru the black market, to be a drain on society by stealing to support their habit, then by going to jail and costing us more, after they spread enough disease to kill a small city with a dirty syringe, because they couldn't get a clean, new one anywhere.

Forget that they can get a job and have a life for once, just because of programs like this.....


Somewhere in Ded Land.....

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MrIMStoned

That's it, I'm movin' to BC.

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