A BAD APPROACH TO METH

If you could condense evil into a substance, it might look like crystal
meth. It's a drug that rots the brain and the body. But the federal
government's response to it has been ineffectual, and perhaps even harmful.

That response has been twofold: to regulate the possession of the
ingredients in methamphetamine, and to increase the maximum penalties for
possessing, trafficking, and producing the drug.

Regulating the use and sale of meth's constituent chemicals might make
sense for the basic chemicals themselves -- ephedrine and red phosphorus,
for example. But it's frighteningly easy to find meth recipes that extract
such chemicals from everyday items, such as paint thinner, drain cleaner
and cold medicine.

The regulations are unlikely to stop a meth manufacturer from buying cold
medicine from the corner drug store. Some North American jurisdictions are
already moving cold medicine behind the counter. But this is a partial
solution at best. Restricting the sale of legitimate household items would
be unworkable and unjustified.

Science might be a better solution to this problem than regulation.
Pharmaceutical companies are already working on new formulations of their
medicines to stop them being used to make meth. Meanwhile, the government
has extended the maximum sentences for production and distribution of meth
to life in prison. The maximum penalty for possession is now seven years,
up from three.

Harsher penalties haven't stopped the use of other drugs and they won't
stop the use of meth. If meth's potential effects, such as psychosis and
death, don't deter users, it's hard to see how seven years in prison will.

Glue and gasoline are legal substances that have destroyed the lives of
many Canadians. It should be clear by now that substance abuse can't be
solved by locking up the substances -- or the abusers.