DRUG ABUSE 'A MEDICAL ISSUE'

Two-Thirds of Canadians Favour Prevention, Treatment Programs Over
Tougher Law Enforcement, Poll Shows

OTTAWA -- Two-thirds of Canadians believe the federal government,
which has promised a tough new National Drug Strategy, should treat
drug abuse as a medical problem requiring more prevention and
treatment programs, according to a new national poll provided
exclusively Monday to The Vancouver Sun.

But a clear majority of the remaining one-third of Canadians who
favour a police crackdown on drug abuse are Conservative supporters,
according to the new survey of just under 3,000 Canadians by
Innovative Research Group Inc.

The survey was made public on the same day a group of West Coast
medical experts slammed Prime Minister Stephen Harper's plan to
introduce a tough new National Drug Strategy.

The Tory government has promised to put more emphasis on enforcement
and less on so-called "harm reduction" approaches like Vancouver's
supervised injection site for addicts.

Innovative spokesman Greg Lyle said the results may explain why
Harper's Tories are advocating the law-and-order approach while
questioning scientific studies praising harm reduction efforts.

"This is an issue where the Conservative world goes one way, the rest
of the world goes another," Lyle said.

Harper, according to Lyle, would risk alienating his own support base
if he backed the former Liberal policy that put more emphasis on harm
reduction measures like injection sites and needle exchanges.

"Within the Tory base, [government support for] harm reduction would
be problematic," said Lyle. "But in the broader public, that approach
is where people are moving."

The on-line poll, which was launched Jan. 8 and concluded Monday,
found 65 per cent of respondents agreed with the proposition that
governments should treat the use of illegal drugs "as an illness and
focus on prevention and treatment for addicts."

The remaining 35 per cent supported the assertion that Ottawa should
treat illicit drug use "as a crime and [therefore] get tough on
enforcement of drug laws among addicts."

British Columbians' views were in line with the national mood, with
66 per cent in favour of the softer approach and 34 per cent
advocating law-and-order measures.

Ontarians (67 per cent viewing addiction as a medical problem) and
Quebecers (65 per cent) were also in tune with the majority view,
whereas Albertans (61 per cent) and Atlantic Canadians (56 per cent)
were least likely to view the issue this way.

The poll found that 55 per cent of current Tory supporters back the
get-tough approach, compared to 45 per cent of Conservative backers
who believe addiction is a medical issue.

Roughly three-quarters of the supporters of other parties believe
addiction is largely a medical matter.

Lyle said the results show the issue is a good one for opposition
parties and problematic for Harper as the prime minister tries to
solidify and expand his coalition into a possible majority
government. He noted that a significant 45 per-cent minority of Tory
backers see addiction as a medical matter.

"This is a great opposition issue because it divides the Tories but
unites the opposition."

The survey of 2,938 adult Canadians is considered accurate to within
1.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, according to Innovative, a
polling and research firm based in Toronto and Vancouver.

The error margin for the B.C. sample, which involved 382 respondents,
is five points.

A study released Monday by the B.C. Centre for Excellence in
HIV/AIDS, an agency partly funded by the provincial government,
argued that the government is already spending a disproportionate
amount of money on unproven enforcement measures.

"The proposed Americanization of the drug strategy towards
entrenching a heavy-handed approach that relies on law enforcement
will be a disaster," said report co-author Dr. Thomas Kerr in a statement.

"It is as if the federal government is willing to ignore a mountain
of science to pursue an ideological agenda."

The Canadian Police Association, representing rank-and-file police
officers across Canada, and the RCMP have both criticized harm
reduction policies.

Health Minister Tony Clement, who visited the Vancouver injection
site earlier this month, announced on Sept. 1, 2006 that the
government was rejecting a requested 3 1/2-year extension of the
facility's licence. Instead, he said he would allow Insite to keep
its doors open until the end of this year, pending further research,
and said no more injection sites would be allowed elsewhere in Canada.

"Do safe injection sites contribute to lowering drug use and fighting
addiction? Right now the only thing the research to date has proven
conclusively is drug addicts need more help to get off drugs,"
Clement said at the time.