TORIES' WAR ON DRUGS TERMED U.S.-STYLE

Opposition Rejects Approach As Out Of Step, Ideological

A national anti-drug strategy that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is
set to launch in Winnipeg today has been panned in advance by
opposition party critics as too ideological.

The government is embracing a U.S.-style "war on drugs" that
approaches drug abuse as more of a criminal matter than a health
issue, Liberal and New Democratic Party critics said yesterday.

Vancouver Liberal MAP Keith Martin, a surgeon, and New Democratic MP
Libby Davies, her party's drug policy critic, used similar terms in
separate interviews about the $64-million plan.

Mr. Martin said marijuana and hard drugs, such as cocaine, should not
be equated in "an ideological war on drugs."

Ms. Davies said Mr. Harper is "caught in an ideological time warp."

The plan is expected to include a major "no safe drugs" education
campaign targeted at youth and parents and aimed in part at clearing
up what Health Minister Tony Clement has called "confusion" about the
safety and legality of marijuana.

It is neither safe, nor legal, he has emphasized, blaming confusion
on a decade of debate about decriminalizing marijuana -- a move
supported by Liberals and the NDP, but opposed by the Harper government.

Mr. Harper, accompanied by Mr. Clement, is scheduled to provide
details at a news conference today of how the government will spend
the promised $64 million to increase drug abuse prevention, treatment
and criminal enforcement.

Mr. Clement has said two-thirds of the funds will be directed toward
prevention and treatment, and the remainder toward combating illicit
drug production and distribution.

On the eve of Mr. Harper's announcement, both MPs emphasized a need
for harm-reduction programs, such as safe-injection sites and needle
exchanges, which are not expected to play a major, if any, role in
the strategy.

This week, Mr. Clement gave the Vancouver safe-injection site a
six-month reprieve, to June 30, 2008, but critics said that was just
to get the controversy over harm-reduction policy off the table for
Mr. Harper's announcement.

"It was a cynical move to push this off the political agenda until
after the general election and then they can shut it down," Mr.
Martin said. "It was a ploy to get it off the table."

Ms. Davies said given that "umpteen studies" have shown the benefits
of supervised injection programs, "they want to buy themselves time
to get through an election" without accepting that harm reduction
policies work.