Looking at arrest rates among those who used cocaine and heroin in 1993, blacks who used cocaine or heroin were more than 4 times as likely to be arrested as whites who used cocaine or heroin. Dr. Michael Poulson of the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, in Atlanta spoke on the politics of harm reduction. An example of harm reduction is that even those people who drive faster than the legal speed limit should wear seat belts. The logic of those who would deny sterile needles to injecting drug users is that drivers should not wear seat belts when they drive faster than the speed limit. Indeed, cars should not be equipped with seat belts because it might encourage speeding, and that is dangerous.
Seat belts send the wrong message.
Dr. Poulson pointed out that harm reduction is an extremely important bridge to treatment. Harm reduction is about giving people the tools to save themselves. Dr. Poulson is researching perceptions of risk and how poor understanding of risk leads to more risky behaviors. He identified barriers to the spread of harm reduction in black communities. One of the most important barriers is a moralism that he finds usually has its source in the teachings in many churches.