NEEDLE POINTERS

Despite the demonstrable impossibility of sucking and blowing
simultaneously, Canada's drug policy continues to follow just such an
approach. Consider last week's march by 100 or so drug addicts and their
supporters through the seedy Eastside of Vancouver to protest what they
claim are 2,000 local deaths by overdose in the past decade.

The addicts champion decriminalization of all drugs and free heroin, as is
provided by government agencies in Switzerland. Users in Vancouver are
provided with a needle exchange and a local group is vowing to open a
supervised injection site shortly, a move the B.C. government says it will
support if there is "universal support" from the community.

And herein lies the contradiction that is our drug policy. Possession of
heroin or any other illegal drug is a criminal offence punishable by
imprisonment. And yet in Vancouver free needles and, possibly, injection
sites are provided to ensure that those same illegal drugs are used in a
safe and standardized manner. The state is concurrently encouraging and
discouraging the same activity. Is it any wonder the War on Drugs has been
declared lost?

We have previously argued for the decriminalization of marijuana, reducing
the punishment for possession to a modest fine. It would make more sense,
we suggested, to redirect our law enforcement efforts away from the
relatively harmless possession of marijuana and toward weightier crimes. We
would argue that the same cannot be said for harder drugs. The violence and
physical toll caused by heroin and cocaine demand continued societal
vigilance and enforcement against their proliferation and treatment for
those addicted.

However, regardless of the side chosen in this debate -- a continuation of
the war against drugs, or complete decriminalization on the basis that the
greater harm is attributible to the inability of users to obtain their
drugs legally -- a measure of consistency would clearly be preferable to
the current policy muddle. We can fight drugs or facilitate their use. We
cannot do both at once.