GETTING SMART ON DRUGS

It doesn't matter if you're against drug use because you think it
destroys lives, it's morally wrong, or you just don't want your car
broken into again by an addict.

Whatever the reasons, we have a shared interest in reducing drug
addiction and the massive problems it causes.

That interest, not ideology or wishful thinking, should be driving
our drug policy.

It's not. A study published this week in the HIV/AIDS Policy and Law
Review is the latest to report that Canada is wasting huge amounts of
money on a doomed drug policy.

The study, which looked at the efforts of the federal drug strategy
secretariat, found money is misdirected toward measures that have
been tried and failed over decades.

The study found 73 per cent of the secretariat's $245-million budget
is spent on law enforcement -- about $180 million.

Treatment, in desperately short supply across B.C., gets about $35
million under the program.

Harm reduction and prevention get about $7 million each.

Yet, the study notes, the best evidence suggests enforcement efforts
are ineffective in reducing drug use, the harm that results or even
criminal activity. Often, the efforts increase the damage to communities.

Efforts to attack the supply side of the drug trade have been costly
failures, from Prohibition through to the present. But we still focus
efforts -- and dollars -- repeating past mistakes.

And we ignore the chance to build on proven successes in reducing the
impact of drug use through treatment and harm reduction measures,
like safe-injection sites. There is nothing magical in these
measures. But they reduce the damage done by addiction and slowly
reduce the demand side of the drug trade.

Prevention gets even less emphasis, the study found -- $1 for every
$25 spent on enforcement. And, according to the report, much of that
money is wasted on programs that have been proven ineffective.

There's nothing surprising in the study. A 2001 review by the federal
auditor general offered the same warning about the misplaced emphasis
on enforcement.

The Harper government has promised a new drug strategy within months.
We hope it does not repeat the same expensive mistakes that have
already caused so much damage.