Can scratched DVD's damage the drive in ...

I remember reading somewhere that playing scratched DVD's can cause the drive to spin more in order to be able to read the data hence over time this will decrease the lifespan of the drive. Reason I'm asking is I have a few scratched games, nothing major but still visible like the Halo3 SE which came scratched out of the box. I just got a new Elite and I wanna take good care of it as much as possible because it's working so well now. Can anyone who's had a perfectly functioning 360 for a long time comment on this, i.e. you have some scratched discs yet your 360 has been playing them fine for a long time...thanks.