For all the local, state and federal tax dollars thrown at “harm reduction” programs to address Colorado’s addiction crisis, it would be only reasonable to expect a return on that investment. And our state is indeed getting a return — just not the kind it had hoped for.

The startling news reported the other day by The Gazette is that year-to-date overdoses are soaring in Denver. Drug overdose rates tracked by the city’s health department — for fatal and nonfatal overdoses — rose more than 20% in Denver year to date through July compared with the same period last year.

As The Gazette’s report noted, data isn’t clear yet as to whether the trend is mirrored elsewhere in our state. But considering Denver is Colorado’s No. 1 city, the statewide implications seem rather obvious.

So do the implications for harm-reduction programs. At the very least, it’s safe to conclude the harm-reduction dogma — which indulges addiction rather than combats it — isn’t delivering as promised. And it could even be driving the overdose rate higher.

To be clear, harm reduction’s misguided advocates never promised to curb addiction — you know, getting addicts to quit and pursue more productive and healthier lives. Much as you might think that would be the core mission of any program for intervening in addiction, incredibly, it has nothing to do with harm reduction.

Harm reduction promises only to reduce overdoses and slow the spread of diseases from dirty needles shared by intravenous drug users. Typically, harm-reduction centers claim to do that by handing out clean syringes for addicts to inject a host of illegal, addictive and deadly drugs, or glass pipes for addicts who prefer to smoke such substances.

The centers also offer advice on drug use. All of it is nonjudgmental, of course; the staff at the centers wouldn’t want to risk making addicts feel bad about their addictions.

And yet, harm reduction has failed even to achieve its unambitious goal of fewer overdoses, as the latest, deeply troubling data seems to suggest.

It evidently hasn’t occurred to harm reduction’s advocates that they have the wrong goal — and it’s backfiring.

The movement stubbornly sticks to its guns, using public funds not only to float its nine needles giveaways in Denver, Colorado Springs, Grand Junction and other cities, but also to pitch propaganda promoting its cause.

“Harm reduction works,” proclaims a Denver Department of Public Health website devoted to the agenda — blind to the distinct likelihood that free needles and pipes enable and even encourage addicts to stay addicted.

Harm reduction is undermining the lives it purportedly is trying to save. Instead of sparing users from the ravages of addiction, the likes of needle exchanges are aiding and abetting it — so addicts can keep stumbling along in a self-destructive stupor, unable to lead productive lives or even stay housed.

True compassion means fighting addiction, not feeding it. It means using the force of law, if needed, to redirect illegal drug users to rehab programs so they can get clean and sober — and restore their ability to be productive members of society.

And it means cracking down hard on the street peddlers who dispense deadly drugs like fentanyl to unsuspecting kids. That’s something our “justice reform”-minded legislature still resists doing, killing yet another bill this past session to make possession of fentanyl in any amount a felony.

The numbers don’t lie.

Harm reduction works? Only if its objective is to help people ruin their lives — and then end them.

the gazette editorial board