Crime and Ethics

This letter is in regard to the letter titled “Ethics and Addiction” in the November 15 issue. It raises two concerns for me. First, Dr. James Belvins does not reference the code of ethics that he is using. Second, he seems to believe that punishment is an effective therapeutic approach.

Under the AMA’s Code of Medical Ethics, which is binding on APA members, we have an ethical responsibility to educate ourselves about the science of our profession. It is very clear to me from the current state of the science that punishment is not an effective therapeutic intervention. It is further true that studies have shown that programs like needle exchanges often lead to treatment seeking. They also have a public health purpose of addressing addiction-related problems, such as the spread of communicable diseases.

As professionals we must guard against substituting personal biases for codes of ethics.