FED'S ADVICE ON ADDICTS

Stay focused on harm reduction over drugs, develop consensus and
co-operation and steer away from polarized positions on drugs.

That's the advice from Diane Jacovella, director of Health Canada's drug
strategy division, to a meeting of B.C. drug policy makers.

Jacovella's comments come amid a growing political debate in Ottawa as some
MPs seek to legalize street drugs while others - in the wake of the
gangland-style shooting of a Montreal crime reporter - seek a new law to
deal with crime gangs.

Jacovella said the goals of Canada's drug policy are to prevent the use of
drugs by young people, reduce drug deaths, increase access to treatment and
reduce the supply of drugs and profits to criminals.

"We need to move the debate to what we can actually do to reduce deaths and
HIV infection rates," she said.

On the world stage, she said, Canada is on side with the harm-reduction
efforts of European countries and "not on the side of the U.S." where the
emphasis is more on law enforcement, the success of which has had mixed
reviews.

Ueli Locher, a drug policy director in Switzerland, urged delegates to stay
away from ideology and take a pragmatic and co-operative approach.

"Facts and figures are more convincing than opinion."

He said Switzerland has tackled its drug problem through prevention -
education in schools and early intervention with special kids having
problems that could lead to addiction - and through harm-reduction programs
such as needle exchanges, injection rooms, job programs, shelters for
addicts, and centres where addicts can go for coffee and make contact with
the health system.

He said Swiss voters realize that they will have to pay for addiction one
way or another and that "it's more intelligent to get people into
treatment."

He said drugs are illegal and Switzerland fights traffickers.

While an overall evaluation of the effectiveness of Swiss harm-reduction
policies has not been done, Locher said they have not increased hard-drug
use and there's a slight decrease in heroin addicts.

The numbers of hard-drug users in treatment has doubled, HIV infection rates
are lower and drug deaths have been cut in half from a peak of 419 in 1992
to 181 last year.

"Among those on prescription heroin (only five per cent of Swiss addicts)
there's been a 70-per-cent decrease in criminal activities over two years."

There was some initial public-business resistance to harm reduction, but it
was reduced when addicts were off the street.