TORIES EYE ANTI-DRUG MOVES

Strategy Will Include Cracking Down On Grow-Ops, Pushers

OTTAWA - The Harper government's new anti-drug strategy is expected
to take a tough approach to illicit drugs, including cracking down on
grow-ops and pushers and retreating from "harm reduction" measures
such as safe injection sites for addicts.

The new strategy, slated to be announced next week, is also
understood to include more money for treatment and a national
drug-use prevention campaign.

The federal budget last March offered a glimpse of the strategy by
allocating an additional $64 million over two years for enforcement,
treatment, and prevention. But the budget figures did not mention
harm-reduction measures, which aim to limit the spread of infectious
diseases through substance abuse.

"They haven't explicitly said they are getting rid of harm reduction,
but the budget numbers speak for themselves," said Leon Mar,
spokesman for the Canadian HIV-AIDS Legal Network. "There is no money
for harm reduction, which is quite ominous for what will be."

Joanne Csete, the network's executive director, recently wrote in a
letter to parliamentarians that the Conservatives are contemplating
"a U.S.-style war on drugs, an approach that has proven time and time
again to be counter-productive and a tragic waste of public funds."

Of the new money allocated in the federal budget, $22 million would
go to law enforcement efforts to crack down on marijuana grow
operations and to catch and convict drug dealers. Drug treatment
programs would get a boost of $32 million, including money for
research aimed at treating crystal methamphetamine addicts.

And another $10 million would be spent on a prevention campaign for
young people and their parents. Tony Cannavino, president of the
Canadian Police Association, said a national "say-no-to-drugs"
campaign would counter a perception among young people that marijuana
is legal, in light of a failed Liberal bid to decriminalize the
possession of small amounts.