CONSERVATIVES' TOUGH TALK ON DRUGS IS A CHEAP POLITICAL PLOY

The Harper government's escalating rhetoric on drug policy will turn
off as many voters as it turns on.

Health Minister Tony Clement on Monday ramped up an attack on
Vancouver's supervised injection site, questioning the medical ethics
of health care workers who support harm reduction strategies such as
Insite.

Conservatives have also mailed flyers to people across the country,
equating drug pushers -- who clearly are criminals -- with junkies,
who are addicts with huge social problems. It pledges: "The
Conservative government will clean up drug crime."

A new Angus Reid poll reveals that, in B.C. and Alberta, arguably the
region where people might be most inclined to consider the injection
site when deciding which party to support, a majority of people in
fact endorse Insite.

Specifically, 53 per cent of British Columbians and 56 per cent of
Albertans say they strongly or moderately support the Downtown
Eastside harm-reduction clinic.

Across Canada, nearly 40 per cent support it, even as 19 per cent also
mistakenly believe that Insite hands out free drugs. Insite, of
course, provides no more than a safe setting, clean needles and some
nursing oversight.

The World Health Organization, as well as the medical establishment
domestically, support harm reduction and supervised injection sites.

And a B.C. Supreme Court ruling this summer decreed that access to
Insite constitutes a Charter right, to life, liberty and security of
the person.

The idea is to reduce the dangers for addicts who doubtless would
shoot up whether a supervised injection site existed or not. At such a
site, users are resuscitated if they overdose, and have access to
rehabilitation referrals.

Insite should not be considered nearly as big a problem as B.C.'s
prevailing shortage of rehab facilities to help addicts get clean.

If the government were sincere in its efforts to address the drug
problem, it would be putting cash into the establishment of more drug
rehabilitation beds.

Instead, it's using addicts to advertise a highly political get-tough
on crime approach.

The pamphlet the Harperites sent out pledges that Conservatives "will
keep junkies in rehab and off the streets."

But Conservatives have been in power for 2 1/2 years and have made
little if any visible headway in getting Downtown Eastside addicts --
including the ones who never use Insite -- into care or off the streets.

Indeed, the federal government has yet to respond to a plea from a
Vancouver charitable foundation seeking $2 million toward capital
costs for a new treatment facility for young people, in Keremeos.

The pamphlet also promises to "punish drug pushers with more jail
time." This is totally non-controversial; it's hard to imagine any
political party objecting to a renewed effort to keep pushers behind
bars.

The text of the pamphlet further asserts: "Thugs, drug pushers and
others involved in the drug trade are writing their own rules. For too
long, lax Liberal governments left gangs and drug pushers to make
their own rules and set their own criminal agenda. Those days are over."

"Who do you think is on the right track on crime?" concludes the
message, featuring an arrow pointing to Harper's name.

In truth, the current government has only lately started seriously
fussing about the Downtown Eastside. And the potential solutions to
the prevailing problems there are well known, having been discussed
going back to the time Philip Owen was Vancouver mayor.

What's required is a multi-pronged approach that would bring to bear
more resources for education, prevention and rehabilitation services
as well as beefed-up penalties for pushers and drug smugglers.

What Harper and the Conservatives are really doing is deploying an
emotional, high-profile public issue to attract support at a time when
the prime minister is toying with the idea of triggering a federal
election.

The Harperites have a largely empty basket in terms of a political
agenda and have seen much attention focused on Liberals who've gotten
significant press play in the wake of their Green Shift environmental
announcement.

But this particular strategy isn't terribly clever because a lot of
voters support harm reduction and many others will see it as a
political gambit.