But they're junkies, so their lives don't matter

From the same people who think that not dying from cervical cancer encourages people to have sex, we have the rule handed down from on high that not dying from drug overdoses encourages people to shoot up.

[Dr. Bertha Madras, deputy director of the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy,] says drug users aren't likely to be competent to deal with an overdose emergency. More importantly, she says, Narcan kits may actually encourage drug abusers to keep using heroin because they know overdosing isn't as likely.

Madras says the rescue programs might take away the drug user's motivation to get into detoxification and drug treatment.

"Sometimes having an overdose, being in an emergency room, having that contact with a health care professional is enough to make a person snap into the reality of the situation and snap into having someone give them services," Madras says.

She'd rather let people die than let them do something she doesn't approve of. That's compassionate conservatism in a nutshell.

Via Pharyngula.