CANADA'S WAR ON DRUGS POORLY WAGED: STUDY

Report Says Little Money Spent on 'Harm-Reduction'

A new study published today says roughly three-quarters of federal
spending to fight illegal drugs is going toward unproven and possibly
counterproductive enforcement measures while an insignificant amount
is being spent on potentially more effective "harm-reduction" measures.

The study was produced by the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS,
an agency partly funded by the B.C. government, that is fighting a
fierce battle with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government over the
future of Canada's only supervised injection site for addicts in
downtown Vancouver.

"While the stated goal of Canada's drug strategy is to reduce harm,
evidence obtained through this analysis indicates that the
overwhelming emphasis continues to be on conventional
enforcement-based approaches which are costly and often exacerbate,
rather than reduce, harms," states the report in HIV/AIDS Policy and
Law Review, a publication funded partly by the Public Health Agency of
Canada and the American Bar Association.

Meanwhile, federal funding to deal with health issues such as rampant
HIV infection rates among addicts is "insignificant," the study notes.

"This stands in stark contrast to recent comments made by various
stakeholders suggesting that there has been an over-investment in
harm-reduction programming."

The comment was in reference to a statement by the Canadian Police
Association on the same day, Sept. 1, 2006, that federal Health
Minister Tony Clement questioned research suggesting Vancouver's
supervised injection site for drug addicts is effective.

Clement issued a news release raising doubts about Vancouver's
supervised injection site, called Insite, while announcing he would
extend the facility's licence only until the end of 2007 pending
further review. Health Canada bureaucrats had supported a 31/2-year
extension.

The police association, meeting the same day in Victoria, publicly
condemned so-called harm reduction measures. The national organization
for rank-and-file Canadian police officers has emerged as a strong
supporter of the Harper government's tough approach to crime.

The B.C. Centre's new study, analyzing publicly available documents,
said 73 per cent, or $271 million, of the $368 million spent by Ottawa
in 2004-05 went toward enforcement measures such as border control,
RCMP investigations and federal prosecution expenses.

Of the remaining $97 million, $51 million went to treatment, $26
million was spent on "co-ordination and research," $10 million went to
prevention programs, and $10 million was devoted to harm reduction.

"The proposed Americanization of the drug strategy, towards
entrenching a heavy-handed approach that relies on law enforcement,
will be a disaster," says report co-author Dr. Thomas Kerr in a
statement. "It is as if (Ottawa) is willing to ignore a mountain of
science to pursue an ideological agenda."