BEYOND THE WAR ON DRUGS

John Reynolds, a staunch Conservative, is standing up for an
experimental program in which prescription heroin is given out, under
medical supervision, to addicts in Vancouver and Montreal. His stance
is more than just a welcome relief from Ottawa's typically narrow,
pro-abstinence approach. It is a recognition of "the Johnsons," who
are as much a part of the Conservative base as the social
conservatives to whom the government has pandered on the issue of
drug addiction.

As described by the late U.S. writer William S. Burroughs, himself an
ex-junkie, the "Johnson family" stood for a code of conduct: "A
Johnson honours his obligations. His word is good and he is a good
man to do business with. A Johnson minds his own business. He is not
a snoopy, self-righteous, troublemaking person. A Johnson will give
help when help is needed. He will not stand by while someone is
drowning or trapped under a burning car." This is libertarianism and
honour together; and the state keeps its nose out of people's lives.

There must be many thousands of Johnsons among the Conservative
party's core supporters. They don't want a "war on drugs" or other
facile solutions to social problems. Like the enlightened Mr.
Reynolds, they don't want to stand in the way of new ideas and
experimentation. They oppose the nanny state in any of its forms,
even supposedly conservative ones.

Mr. Reynolds is in a position to know something about conservative
values. He was the co-chair of Stephen Harper's election campaign in
2006. He was first elected a Progressive Conservative MP in 1972. He
has seven children. He walks the walk.

Good Johnson that he is, Mr. Reynolds is a director of the charity
that is raising money for the heroin trial, which follows on earlier,
government-funded trials in Vancouver and Montreal in which heroin
was dispensed. The purpose is to reach those hard-core addicts for
whom methadone programs haven't worked, and reduce the damage done by
illegal heroin and criminality. "Anything that thinking people can do
to help people get rid of that illness is a good idea," Mr. Reynolds
says, referring to addiction. That is the language not of social
conservatism but of the Johnsons, and it has a powerful, and
refreshing, ring to it.