CANADA NEEDS NEW POLICY ON DRUG ABUSE

After almost 100 years of sliding backward, perhaps it's time for
Canada to take a second look at its practice of throwing drug users in
jail.

The social ills that accompany drug abuse -- from those who are left
homeless through dependency on such substances as heroin to families
that are destroyed by alcohol abuse -- are so well known they have
become cliched in movies, literature and on television. Yet North
America seems to be locked in a death dance with those trapped in the
abuse cycle and their suppliers on one side, and those staffing the
enforcement, prosecution and incarceration agencies.

A report by the HIV/AIDS Policy and Law Review, released Monday,
indicated that since 1908 Canada has adopted a drug-control policy
based on enforcement, and it continues that policy even though there
has never been any evidence that it works. On the other hand, the
authors point out, a pilot program in Vancouver's worst neighbourhood
geared at helping to address the social ills associated with drug
abuse by providing addicts with a safe injection site, has been held
to the highest scientific standards and proven itself to be successful.

Yet the federal government has indicated it is considering ending the
program that works in favour of spending even more taxpayers' money on
one that has never proven to be successful.

And the amount of money it is already squandering is
considerable.

According to the review article, which is based on federal government
data acquired through the Freedom of Information Act, the feds spend
almost a quarter billion dollars a year on its drug strategy, 73 per
cent of which goes into enforcement. Only six per cent is spent on
addiction prevention and harm reduction, the study says.

This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the full cost of
the strategy. Because many of the social ills associated with a failed
drug policy are picked up by provincial and local governments, the
cost is many times that. For example, the researchers estimate the
costs associated with policing and locking up people connected to the
drug industry equalled some $2 billion in 2002, and the cross-Canada
health-care costs were about $1.13 billion.

It would be one thing to spend this kind of cash if there was
peer-reviewed, scientific evidence that adopting this U.S.-style
strategy to control drugs was doing some good. That isn't the case.

"You would be hard-pressed to find one credible expert who believes
the strategy in the United States is working," Thomas Kerr, a member
of the faculty of medicine at the University of British Columbia and
one of the study's authors told the Globe and Mail. "It doesn't reduce
drug use, and it doesn't promote public health. I am very concerned we
are going to be taking many steps backward."

And the study's authors are not alone in this assessment. In 2001 the
federal auditor general blasted the federal government for failing to
set benchmarks or even monitor what the provinces, territories and
other jurisdictions were doing in trying to address the problem.

Still, Prime Minister Stephen Harper campaigned last year on a promise
to close safe injection sites and to put more money into police and
jail services, a promise Erik Waddell, a spokesman for Health Minister
Tony Clement, indicated to the Globe Monday the government is
determined to keep.

This is bad news for all Canadian taxpayers, but particularly so for a
province such as Saskatchewan. According to the study's authors,
aboriginal drug users have especially been disadvantaged by the
federal policy.

This isn't only because they are more likely to be locked up for drug
crimes, but they are also more likely to be infected with diseases
related to drug use, such as HIV and hepatitis C, and least likely to
avail themselves of assistance.

The study shows that infection rates are particularly high in prison,
partly because so many people are there simply for having a drug abuse
problem, and that when police step up efforts to capture drug
offenders, users are more likely to go to remote areas (such as
reserves) where there is less help, and less likely to use clean
syringes for fear of being identified as a drug user.

One hopes the federal government will adjust its thinking. Some
enforcement will always be required, but to disproportionately spend
so much on enforcement and so little on strategies that have proven to
be successful is an immoral waste of tax money.

And as we see daily on inner-city streets in Canada, it is also an
immoral waste of lives.