The Kuomintang dug out an article on drug prevention and control written by DPP Taipei mayoral candidate Shen Boyang more than 10 years ago and quoted it out of context, accusing Shen of "condoning drug abuse" and "supporting drugs." Taipei Mayor Chiang Wanan even posted an attack on Shen on Facebook yesterday, resulting in an influx of more than 480,000 comments. Experts said that methadone maintenance treatment and clean needle services are measures that can be implemented in parallel according to different needs, and emphasized that harm reduction does not encourage or support drugs.
The Taiwan Science and Technology Media Center invited experts to provide opinions today. Wu Yicheng, director of the psychiatry department of Hsinchu Mackay Hospital, said that the basic spirit of "harm reduction" is to acknowledge that a person may be temporarily unable or unwilling to stop using drugs, but he can still reduce infections, overdose, life threats and other health and social harm. Harm reduction is not to encourage or support drugs, but to provide drug addicts with a chance to regain their health before their addictive behaviors change, while also avoiding the spread of infectious diseases during drug use.
Wu Yicheng explained that methadone is a long-acting opioid that can be used to treat opioid use disorder. It acts on similar receptors as heroin and other drugs. With appropriate medical monitoring and stable dosage, it can reduce withdrawal symptoms and craving for illegal opioids such as heroin. From a harm reduction perspective, the importance of methadone treatment is not just "replacing drugs with another drug", but reducing the risks of high-risk injections, needle sharing, HIV or viral hepatitis infection, overdose and death.
Chen Juanyu, a professor at Yangming Jiaotong University’s Institute of Public Health, also explained that methadol and buprenorphine are used to treat heroin and other opiate addictions. They can alleviate withdrawal and craving, reduce illegal use, injection, infection and death risks, and help stabilize life. In Taiwan, they are classified as second-level and third-level drugs and controlled substances of the same level respectively, and their use according to legal prescriptions is legal medical treatment. Methadol usually has to be taken at a designated point every day; butylnorphine can be taken home after evaluation. Addiction treatment has not yet been fully included in health insurance, so you can apply for subsidies from the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Chen Yuxiong, a psychiatrist at Taipei City United Hospital Kunming Prevention and Treatment Center and Linsen Traditional Chinese Medicine Kunming Campus, also said that providing clean needles is to reduce the risk of infection caused by sharing or reusing injection equipment, especially HIV and viral hepatitis (Hepatitis B, C, etc.). It does not mean providing drugs, nor does it mean allowing injections to be administered at service locations. Methadol maintenance treatment and cleaning needle services are measures that can be taken in parallel according to different needs. Taking methadol orally does not necessarily mean that needle services are unnecessary.
Chen Yuxiong said that since Taiwan launched a harm reduction program in 2005, the HIV epidemic related to injection drugs has dropped significantly, by more than 99%, and Taipei City also has a cleaning needle service. Clean needle services, supervised substance use sites, and the provision of specific drugs by medical prescription each have different purposes, applicable objects, and management systems, and cannot be directly equated with "free distribution of drugs."
