DRUG ABUSERS NEED HELP, NOT JAIL TIME, CANADIANS SAY

Tory Tough-On-Drugs Policy Unpopular: Poll

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 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 Conservative government has promised to put more emphasis on
enforcement and less on so-called "harm reduction" approaches such as
Vancouver's supervised injection site for addicts.

Innovative spokesman Greg Lyle said the results may explain why the
Harper 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," Mr. Lyle said.

Mr. Harper, according to Mr. 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 Mr. Lyle. "But in the broader public, that
approach is where people are moving."

The online poll, which was launched Jan. 8 and concluded yesterday,
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 the federal
government 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 addition is largely a medical matter.

Mr. Lyle said the results show the issue is a good one for opposition
parties and problematic for Mr. 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.

"This is a great opposition issue because it divides the Tories but
unites the opposition."

The survey of 2,938 adult Canadians is considered accurate to within
1.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, according to Innovative, a
polling and research firm based in Toronto and Vancouver.

The Canadian Police Association, representing rank-and-file police
officers across Canada, and the RCMP have both criticized
harm-reduction policies.

Health Minister Tony Clement, who visited the Vancouver injection site
earlier this month, announced on Sept. 1, 2006, that the government
was rejecting a requested 3 1/2-year extension of the facility's
licence. Instead, he said he would allow Insite to keep its doors open
until the end of this year, pending further research, and said no more
injection sites would be allowed elsewhere in Canada.

"Do safe-injection sites contribute to lowering drug use and fighting
addiction? Right now the only thing the research to date has proven
conclusively is drug addicts need more help to get off drugs," Mr.
Clement said at the time.