DRUG FIGHT STRATEGY FLAWED, STUDY FINDS

Federal Funding Spent on Enforcement Often Causes More Harm

About 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, a new study suggests.

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
Vancouver, called Insite.

"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 made by the Canadian
Police Association which repeated federal Health Minister Tony
Clement's concerns about Insite. Mr. Clement issued a news release
raising doubts about the supervised injection site while announcing
that he would extend the facility's licence only until the end of
2007, pending further review. Health Canada had supported a 3
1/2-year extension.

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

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 authors, who object to the government's plans to develop a new
national drug strategy with greater focus on enforcement, say the
government is putting extraordinary demands on Insite to prove its
positive impact. This pressure continues even though preliminary
research indicates the Vancouver facility results in more addicts
seeking treatment and fewer sharing needles.