Official reaffirms drug prevention policy

• By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

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Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) yesterday reiterated that the ministry has no plans to ask social workers to distribute illegal drugs in community centers as the government’s drug policy comes under scrutiny.

Heated debates on the government’s drug prevention policies were triggered by Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) re-election campaign team, who earlier this month questioned Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator and Taipei mayoral candidate Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) drug stance, citing an op-ed article he wrote in 2014, when he was a doctoral student.

Chiang and his team accused Shen of supporting decriminalization of drugs and “giving out [illegal] drugs and clean needles in local communities.”

Shen said that the article was about drug prevention policies around the world, including needle and syringe programs and medication-assisted treatment, which are harm reduction policies.

At a meeting of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Chiu Hui-ju (邱慧洳) said that Shen had mentioned that Taiwan can learn from other countries in “providing drug users drugs and clean needles at community centers,” and questioned whether the “drugs” he mentioned referred to “oral methadone” as his supporters claimed.

Shih said although the existing methadone maintenance therapy service offers oral methadone, it is implemented simultaneously with the needle and syringe program, which gives out sterile injecting equipment to prevent the transmission of blood-borne diseases, so they can be given together.

Methadone is classified as a Category 2 narcotic and a Category 2 controlled drug, he said, adding that Shen has repeatedly explained his stance and the ministry respects the author of the article.

Regarding Chiu’s repeated request that the ministry conduct an assessment report on the feasibility of “providing drugs in local communities,” Shih said that the harm reduction programs have already yielded significant results in reducing HIV and other blood-borne diseases, and there is no need to change them.

The ministry’s stance is clear — it will not provide drugs at community centers and does not need to conduct a feasibility study on distributing them in local communities, he said.

Meanwhile, a claim by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) — a spokesperson for Chiang’s election campaign — last week that social workers would be distributing drugs in local communities prompted social workers to stage a protest in front of her office yesterday, demanding that she apologize.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Yueh-chin (林月琴) said many frontline social workers and health professionals have expressed concerns that messages like this could undermine the government’s harm reduction program, smearing social workers as drug enablers and making drug users afraid to ask for help.

Shih said there is no such thing as social workers giving out drugs and that they are not “drug providers,” adding that harm reduction policies do not encourage drug use.

Aside from preventing stigmatization and protecting privacy to ensure the harm reduction services operate without interference, the easy accessibility of the services is another critical factor in the program’s success, he said.

The program is an interdisciplinary collaboration that includes physicians, nurses, pharmacists and social workers, Shih said.

Social workers play a vital role in providing case management, family support and community resource linkage, while helping drug users reintegrate into society, but they are not involved in “giving out drugs,” he stressed.

A Ministry of Health and Welfare’s report states that, to prevent HIV transmission among drug users, the accessible sterile needle and syringe service covers 770 health counseling stations, 388 automated vending machines and 575 needle disposal boxes.