Mayoral candidates bicker over drug policy

BAD-FAITH ARGUMENTS: KMT lawmakers attempted to drag Shen for 12-year-old article, while Chiang blamed a paid campaign for the Internet opprobrium

• By Lee I-chia and Ho Yu-hua / Staff reporters, with CNA

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Democratic Progressive Party Legislator and Taipei mayoral candidate Puma Shen (沈伯洋) and Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) continued to clash over drug policy yesterday.

The dispute began after Shen introduced a campaign platform with four strategies to combat drug use in schools last Friday, including interdicting the supply of drugs, improving life-skills education and implementing drug screening, complemented by judicial measures.

KMT lawmakers Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) and Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) and KMT Taipei City Councilor Yang Chih-tou (楊植斗) the next day cited a 2014 op-ed in which Shen discussed decriminalization and wrote that illegal drugs and medicines should be treated on the same conceptual footing, and that Taiwan should establish community centers like in some countries to provide drug users with clean needles and controlled substances.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator and Taipei mayoral candidate Puma Shen, front center, joins hands with President William Lai, front left, and Premier Cho Jung-tai, front right, at the launch of Shen’s campaign headquarters in Taipei yesterday.

Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times

Asked for comment, Shen on Saturday said Taipei’s needle and syringe programs — providing sterile injecting equipment and safe disposal options to people who use drugs intravenously — started when Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the KMT was mayor of Taipei, and is a policy that is still being implemented across the nation.

Illegal drugs and medicine are both called “drugs” in English, Shen said, adding that the main issue is risk management, and the KMT lawmakers might have misunderstood, as he also said that Taiwan’s institutional framework is not ready for decriminalizing illegal drug use.

Chiang, seeking re-election, on Saturday evening said in a Facebook post that “there is no room for ambiguity when it comes to combating drugs,” and asked if city residents could accept Shen’s idea of setting up community centers and providing clean needles, syringes and drugs.

Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an, center, waves to supporters at a campaign event in Taipei yesterday.

Photo: CNA

He criticized Shen as “blurring the line between illegal drugs and medicine,” bringing fear and doubt to city residents.

As of 5pm yesterday, Chiang’s post had more than 475,900 comments, mostly accusing him of deliberately misstating the situation.

Shen at midnight said in a Facebook post that there are no problems discussing anti-drug policies, but Chiang and KMT lawmakers should stop disingenuously conflating harm reduction policies, such as methadone maintenance treatment and needle and syringe programs, with “encouraging illegal drug use,” as it could misguide parents and children and discourage drug prevention workers.

Asked to comment on the rapidly increasing visibility on Chiang’s post, Chiang’s campaign office yesterday accused Shen of being unable to confront his past positions, while the comments section was active late into the night.

“The money is burning, must be hard work,” it added, implying that the DPP was behind an organized online campaign.

Chiang said yesterday that he has always supported methadone maintenance treatment and needle and syringe programs, but urged Shen not to shift the focus.

Separately, Shen said that his 2014 article was about introducing drug-related harm reduction measures around the world, including measures implemented in Taipei, and that he had not criticized the city government’s policies.

His campaign platform announced on Friday last week was focused on addressing the spread of new psychoactive substances on campuses, he said, adding that it is regrettable to see the crucial issue, of protecting school children become a point to spar over.

Many public health workers might feel like they are being stigmatized, as his political adversaries are tarring public health harm reduction policies, he said.

Shen invited Chiang to debate him on drug policy.

KMT Culture and Communications Committee Director Chen I-hsin (陳以信) yesterday urged Chiang and Shen to publicly debate on drug policy to make their policies clear and allow Taipei voters to decide.

In response, Chiang yesterday said that opposition to drug use is an absolute moral issue, not something up for debate, and that his zero-tolerance stance was firm.

Shen said he is willing to accommodate any format of debate, provided that the discussion focuses on specific details, rather than an exchange of insults.