In a perfect example of why I hate politicians, the Australian health Minister, Tony Abbott has accused the Labor opposition of being “soft on drugs” due mainly to their support for heroin injecting room trials.
He went even further in accusing the (Labor run) states of coniving with criminals by supporting injecting rooms - “I can certainly assure the House that as long as the Howard government has breath in its body, we will try to oppose any state and territory which is conniving with law breaking in this way,” Mr Abbott said.
Of course the Labor front benchers feigned personal insult and it was a whole other cringefully embarrassing episode for Australian politics, but the underlying effect of the exchange is a genuine shame.
The government was responding to a report into drugs which recommended against heroin injecting rooms - a position they supported. Fair enough.
But to then attempt to marginalise opposing opinions on the issue starts to become dangerous. After all there are many studies that suggest injecting rooms can be an efctive strategy in harm reduction. Opinions supporting heroin injecting rooms are often based on pretty solid statistics.
Marginalising supporters of injecting rooms as soft and supporting criminals cuts off an area of the debate that may in fact work and more importantly may hold the key for future drug strategy should current efforts not work.
The accusations were ill thought out and incredibly short sited.