GUILT BY ASSOCIATION:

a Wall St. Journal article 9 Jan described deaths of staff of needle exchange services as “heroin program’s deadly toll.” In fact, it’s not the work or the workplace, but the disease of addiction that causes death. Whether an addict who has achieved abstinence works in a harm reduction program or on Wall Street, is a health educator or earns a living shining shoes, the risk of relapse – and death – exists. One must applaud those who, with minimal compensation and generally very little appreciation from the community, toil to ease the lot of those who are generally reviled and shunned by society.