DRUG TREATMENT KEY ISSUE: POLL

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 CanWest News Service.

But a clear majority of those remaining 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 Research Group 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 online 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."

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.

Meanwhile, 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 a significant 45 per cent minority of Tory backers see
addiction as a medical matter.

The survey of 2,938 adult Canadians is considered accurate to within
1.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.