RADICAL THOUGHT TAKES HOLD IN THE WAR AGAINST DRUGS

Drug Prohibition And Strict Law Enforcement Isn't The Answer, MD Says

Dr. Alex Wodak says that a quarter-century ago, he was vilified and
considered more of a fruitcake than someone to be taken serious.

The spread of HIV/AIDS, the rise in overdose deaths from injection
drug use and the dawning realization that we need a new approach to
drug policy has changed that.

As he says, people everywhere can see the American-led war on drugs
is an abysmal failure.

"It's still a controversial subject," Wodak said Sunday in an
interview, "but I think more and more people are prepared to say
publicly that what we've been doing hasn't worked, it's never going
to work and we need to change our whole approach. Tinkering around
the edges isn't going to make a difference."

The Australian now is among the most recognized of a global tribe
committed to the gospel of harm reduction. He was among the earliest
of converts -- a founder of the International Harm Reduction Association.

In addition to his social advocacy work, he is director of Sydney's
St. Vincent's Hospital's 50-member Alcohol and Drug Service, treating
patients suffering from the effects of their dependencies.

Most recently, he has been publishing on methamphetamine dependency
and the apparently rising tide of stimulant abuse around the globe.

As well, he is shaping policies in developing countries with broad
consultancy work on how to manage HIV and the spread of blood-borne
viral infections among injecting drug users.

Wodak advocates a completely opposite approach to the strategy
articulated by Prime Minster Stephen Harper and unsurprisingly lauded
by former Tory MP Randy White, now the mouthpiece for the Drug
Prevention Network of Canada.

Mandatory minimum prison sentences and large fines for
marijuana-growing operations, withdrawal of support for injection
sites, a crackdown on drug crime and no marijuana decriminalization
legislation -- White called the government's intended program "a
breath of fresh air."

Wodak couldn't disagree more.

"It is clear we cannot enforce our way out of this problem," he said.

"That is what is tried around the world, at great financial and human
cost, and we can see it doesn't work. We need to change from a
reliance on drug law enforcement to implementing sound public policy
based on health and social measures."

I agree wholeheartedly.

It is time to move the debate from why -- to how -- we should legally
regulate the drug trade.

Most specialists around the world, including the Health Officers
Council of B.C., acknowledge criminalization has failed to address
the health, social and public safety fallout from illegal drug use
and it's time to embrace a health-based approach.

Countries such as the Netherlands and Switzerland have seen
significant reductions in drug-related crime by ensuring drug users
who do not respond to more conventional treatments are provided clean
heroin under supervision.

"The message is we have to change from having a preoccupation with
drug law enforcement as the solution to the drug problem and realize
it is primarily a health and social issue, although there is always a
need to back that up with law enforcement," Wodak said.

"It's an issue globally and it has been getting worse for decades and
must be turned around."

Besides contributing to crime, disorder and poor health for drug
users, he emphasized: "Drug prohibition contributes to more dangerous
drugs -- such as crystal meth -- constantly emerging. And they
replace less dangerous drugs."

Wodak is in town and a key participant at the 17th International Harm
Reduction Conference.

The meeting, he said, is a chance to educate a huge number of health
professionals -- 1,300 from 60 countries will be here.

Wodak explained that he came to his position from mainstream medicine
and never thought radical drug policy change was either desirable or
possible given the political climate.

"But we had a huge epidemic of HIV among gay men in Sydney and we
could see the very serious possibility of HIV going from gay men to
the intravenous drug users to the general population. Once it got
into the general population, we feared we'd never get rid of it.
That's how I got interested in the issue."

That led him to start the first (initially illegal) needle syringe
program in Australia.

"If we didn't do it," he said, "we would have been engulfed by AIDS.
It was so obvious and yet I met such resistance and I asked myself
why. I realized I was battling an entrenched policy of drug
prohibition established and maintained predominantly by the United
States because of their own insecurities about drugs and drug use."

He thinks marijuana should be legalized, taxed and health warnings
imprinted on packages in much the same way that alcohol and tobacco
are regulated and marketed.

That might even help stem the trend that worries him -- the rise of
amphetamine use around the globe that he blames on the continued
criminal drug prohibition.

"The hope is the people who attend this conference will go back to
their countries with a better knowledge about what works and what
doesn't work," Wodak said.

"We need to move from measures that are very costly, very ineffective
and counter-productive, to policies and interventions that are
effective, inexpensive and don't have terrible side-effects like
corrupting the police and the judiciary and producing narco-states.

"We know what works, we just don't know how to convince the
policy-makers to do it. We need to make health and social policies a
higher priority than law enforcement."