FEDS RAPPED ON DRUG ENFORCEMENT

Money Wasted on Crackdowns Instead of Care, Study Says

OTTAWA - Roughly three-quarters of federal spending to fight illegal
drugs is going toward unproven and possibly counterproductive
enforcement measures, a study published today says.

An insignificant amount is being spent on potentially more effective
"harm-reduction" measures, it claims.

The study was produced by the British Columbia Centre for Excellence
in HIV/AIDS, an agency partly funded by the B.C. government. It is
fighting Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government over the future of
Canada's only supervised injection site for addicts in downtown Vancouver.

"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."

In September, federal Health Minister Tony Clement questioned
preliminary research suggesting Vancouver's supervised injection site
for drug addicts is effective.

Clement issued a news release raising doubts about Vancouver's
supervised injection site, called Insite, while announcing that he
would extend the facility's licence only until the end of 2007 pending
further review.

At the same time, The Canadian Police Association publicly condemned
so-called harm reduction measures. The CPA, a national organization
for rank-and-file Canadian police officers, has emerged as a strong
supporter of the Harper government's tough approach to crime.

CPA vice-president Tom Stamatakis, who is also president of the
Vancouver Police Union, told the media the federal government is
focusing most of its effort and money on harm-reduction measures such
as needle exchanges and the Vancouver injection facility.

"This harm-reduction focus has led to unprecedented levels of crime in
our city," said Stamatakis.

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

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 study says the proportion of federal spending on enforcement has
dropped from 95 per cent in 2001 to the most recent figure, 73 per
cent, after the former Liberal government -- responding to criticism
from the federal auditor-general and other critics that Canada's drug
strategy was unco-ordinated and ineffective -- began emphasizing
alternative anti-drug strategies such as harm reduction.

The authors, who object to Ottawa's plans to develop a new national
drug strategy with greater focus on enforcement, say Ottawa 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.

Meanwhile, numerous studies have already shown that get-tough
enforcement measures, as well as police-run education programs, aren't
effective despite generous federal funding, the authors argue.