HARM REDUCTION AIM OF 'BEYOND THE EPIDEMICS'

A Community Activist Who Works With Drug Users Says That Prime
Minister Stephen Harper's Get-Tough-On-Crime Stance Won't Win the War on Drugs.

"Stephen Harper has a mandate to increase funding for law
enforcement, and he wants to bring in mandatory minimums (of prison
sentences) and I find that so confusing because we can see what a
terrible mess the United States is in by having these mandatory
minimums," said Dr. Susan Boyd, senior research fellow and associate
professor at the Centre for Addictions Research of B.C.

"(The Americans) have the largest prison population of the Western
nations and it hasn't curtailed drug use. I don't think there's any
evidence that harsh drug laws and imprisonment stop drug use -- it
doesn't even stop it in the prisons."

Harper and Health Minister Tony Clement are ignoring scientific
evidence that harm-reduction programs decrease harm and public
disorder, Boyd said in her address, titled Women, Drugs and Harm
Reduction: Lessons from the Past and Future Considerations.

Speaking at the Beyond the Epidemics conference in Regina on
Thursday, Boyd acknowledged the need for law enforcement but said it
isn't meant to deal with social problems.

Harm reduction tries to reduce harm to the individual and society
non-judgmentally and practically with innovative and flexible
programs to meet the needs of drug users. Those programs include
needle exchange, safe injection education and controlled drinking.

Boyd believes that many people with pain in their lives use legal and
illegal drugs to self-medicate.

Boyd said that harm reduction programs that are culture- and
gender-appropriate recognize the events that have shaped user's lives.

"Their behaviours are related to abuse, violence,
institutionalization racism, the residential experience -- unless we
address those issues, it's very difficult for people to heal."

Instead of pushing for tougher punishment, Harper should focus on
reducing poverty, Boyd said.

"For a lot of poor users, there's a worry of other disease, such as
tuberculosis ... If they do contract hepatitis C or AIDS, their
health status is very different from someone living a comfortable
middle-class life who has had good health care all their life," Boyd said.

Front-line workers, professionals and people with HIV are attending
the two-day conference that began Thursday and is being conducted by
AIDS Programs South Saskatchewan and All Nations Hope AIDS Network.

"Both agencies are extremely small, staff-wise, and our agency covers
all of southern Saskatchewan, and All Nations Hope does the entire
province," said Barb Bowditch, a community HIV/AIDS specialist with
AIDS Programs South Saskatchewan in Regina. "Where we have the
biggest impact is to bring people together in a conference for two days."

Held for the fifth year, the conference's name has changed from
Epidemics in Our Communities to Beyond the Epidemics, in order to
reflect a call to action, Bowditch said.

Bowditch explained that epidemics include HIV, hepatitis C,
addictions, violence and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

"We need to move forward and make a difference, and each individual
from the conference will take something back to their communities,
and if you can get them to think differently -- that's a start," Bowditch said.