TOUGH TALK ON DRUGS NO SOLUTION

If getting tough on illicit drug use would rid the world of this
scourge, or even reduce it, I would be in favour of such a policy. But
it doesn't; it only makes thing worse, as the fiasco called the war on
drugs in the U.S. has demonstrated. Prohibition of drugs and
criminalization of drug users simply creates a windfall opportunity
for organized crime.

Recent comments by Health Minister Tony Clement, chastising doctors
for their support for harm reduction through safe injection sites,
were either ignorant or disingenuous. Clement was either blinded by
ideology or being crassly exploitative in seeking an election issue.
Or both.

We should try to elect politicians who will support practical ways of
improving our lives, not ones who will further damage our imperfect
society by taking simplistic rhetorical stances that ignore virtually
all informed opinion. It is fine to "get tough on crime," but not when
it will result in far more crime. And not when it results in punishing
the afflicted.

If our society is to be judged, as it should be, by how we treat the
most wretched among us, then let us seek ways to truly help those
whose lives are being ruined by drug use, for they are surely among
the most wretched. Let us learn to treat them with compassion, and not
drive them into the hands of real criminals who, like certain
politicians, will further exploit their misery.

Gary Bauslaugh

Duncan