OTTAWA SLEEPWALKS THROUGH HIV/AIDS 'PUBLIC-HEALTH CRISIS'

More than two years ago, a national task force issued a report with a host
of ideas on how to reduce the growing problem of HIV and injection-drug use.

One of its key themes was a plea to Ottawa to stop using the failed
crime-based approach to drug addiction and replace it with a health-based
model.

To that end, the report said the Criminal Code should be altered to allow
doctors to prescribe drugs such as heroin to addicts. This would take
addicts away from back alleys and crime and into an environment where they
could get treatment and help.

The federal Health Department, which funded the task force, promptly
ignored that key recommendation. A few months later, Health Minister Allan
Rock had the gall to issue a press release claiming "Health Canada has been
a leader in the area of HIV/AIDS and substance-abuse issues since 1989."

Now fast-forward to last week and the release of another federally-funded
report by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.

"Canada is in the midst of a public-health crisis concerning HIV/AIDS and
injection-drug use," said the study. "Canada's response to this crisis is
far from being concerted and effective."

It found that, in Vancouver, for example, the number of injection-drug
users with HIV climbed almost six-fold in the mid-90s. The rate was 23 per
cent in 1996-97, versus four per cent in 1992-93.

One of the study's authors, Dr. David Roy, noted "the criminalization of
drug use does not achieve the goals it aims for. It causes harms equal to
or worse than those it is supposed to prevent."

And it is everyone's problem, as network executive director Ralf Jurgens
pointed out.

"Injection-drug users don't live in a vacuum. They are part of our communities.

"Given their geographic mobility and their interaction with other
Canadians, the problem of injection-drug use and HIV concerns us all."

The study identified four populations that are "particularly affected:
Women, street youth, prisoners and aboriginal people."

Among 66 excellent recommendations, the report once again urged Ottawa to
begin pilot projects for the prescription of drugs such as heroin and begin
decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of currently illegal drugs.

While North American drug policies stubbornly cling to an abstinence-based
model, the study notes other countries, including Britain, Australia,
Holland and Switzerland, have had measurable success using controlled
prescriptions of illegal drugs.

The report also called for better access to methadone treatment, sterile
needles and "comprehensive services" including counselling, education and
primary health care for those in methadone programs.

It concluded by saying implementation of the 66 proposals "must become an
urgent priority."

The response from Ottawa? Not even a silent meow.

The Liberal pattern on this issue is well established -- deny the gravity
of the problem, overstate the success of current programs and beg off
anything remotely controversial.

The Liberals flit around this crisis because an apathetic public allows
them to get away with it. They know there are no votes in modernizing drug
laws or helping street youth, prisoners and aboriginal people.

No, the government is content to mouth platitudes and await another report,
this one from a Senate group studying drug-treatment programs in other
countries.

It already has stacks of reports. What it doesn't have is the guts to move
on them.