The Taipei mayoral election unexpectedly became involved in the debate on drug harm reduction, and Li Yanxiu even sparked the anger of social workers for his remarks about "social workers distributing drugs." Minister of Health and Welfare Shi Chongliang emphasized that the harm reduction policy has been misinterpreted by a lot of political rhetoric recently. The Ministry of Health and Welfare once again reiterated that social workers are an important role in the drug harm reduction policy and will never distribute drugs in the community. However, a democratic society respects the rights of groups and individuals to express their opinions rationally, and "we respect that."
Recently, the Blue Camp has been constantly talking about issues related to drug harm reduction measures. Li Yanxiu, spokesperson for Chiang Wanan's campaign team, said at the KMT anti-drug rally, "In the future, social workers will provide drugs and poisons for drug addicts in the community to treat addiction." This once again aroused the anger of the social work community, demanding that Li Yanxiu apologize for smearing the social work profession. However, Li Yanxiu has not apologized for relevant remarks so far. Therefore, the Taipei City Social Workers Union went to Li Yanxiu's service office to protest today.
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In addition, today, Kuomintang legislator Chen Jinghui served as the convener of the Legislative Yuan's Health and Environment Committee, and arranged a special report on drug harm reduction policies. She invited Shi Chongliang and other relevant officials to explain. The outside world questioned that this was a "private execution hall" and used the power of the Legislative Yuan to conduct election operations.
In this regard, Shi Chongliang said that the recent political rhetoric has caused a lot of misinterpretation of the harm reduction policy. He will use the opportunity of the Legislative Yuan's special report to clearly explain to the public the content, actions, and effectiveness of the harm reduction policy. He also hopes that the public will continue to support the current internationally successful harm reduction policy.
Shi Chongliang also emphasized that social workers play an important role in drug harm reduction policies. They shoulder important responsibilities such as case care, family support, social resource connection and recovery, and will never distribute drugs in the community. Regarding the relevant speeches of politicians, democratic societies give groups and individuals the right to express their opinions rationally, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare respects them.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare pointed out that in response to the rapid rise in the AIDS epidemic caused by the sharing of injection equipment among domestic injection drug addicts (IDU) in 1993, the CDC referred to the international harm reduction strategy and used three major harm reduction strategies, including cleaning needles, maintenance treatment, and health education consulting services, to reduce the risk of infection from shared injection equipment. Since then, the AIDS epidemic has dropped significantly. In 1994, the proportion of IDU among newly reported HIV-infected people was as high as 72%, and last year it dropped to 1.7%.
In addition, the Ministry of Health and Welfare emphasized that harm reduction does not mean encouraging or rationalizing drug use, but rather reducing the risk of infection and harm to health and society before the case has stopped using drugs, and guiding the case into the medical system, gradually connecting drug addiction treatment, psychological support and social recovery services. Maintenance treatment is an important entrance for high-risk drug addicts to enter the medical system.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare explained that domestic studies show that those who have been stably receiving methadone treatment for more than one year have an overall risk of death of about 33%, and the proportion of full-time employment has increased from 48.3% to 69%, showing that continued treatment is related to better employment and social functions. The Ministry of Health and Welfare also provides various levels of drug addiction medical expense subsidies to reduce people's financial barriers to treatment. The number of drug users in my country has also decreased from 60,285 in 2016 to 47,630.
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