PORTUGAL'S EXPERIENCE POINTS TO DRUG SOLUTION

Political will needed but Tories going other way

It has become clear that arresting, prosecuting and jailing heroin and
crack addicts doesn't make them stop using drugs. The illegal drug
trade continues to fuel crime and gang violence, and the social and
health effects of addiction push the cost to $8.2 billion a year
across Canada, according to a 2007 report by the Health Officers
Council of B.C.

Until now, debate over the issue has tended toward the extremes:
legalize drugs or impose harsher penalties. Both solutions are
misguided, and the polarized controversy has obscured the middle
ground, where lie the best solutions.

Two Vancouver-based organizations - the B.C. Centre for Excellence in
HIV/AIDS and the International Centre for Science and Drug Policy
(ICSDP) - have played a key role in drafting a declaration advocating
the worldwide decriminalization of drugs.

The "Vienna Declaration" is the manifesto for next month's 2010
International AIDS Conference in Viennaa. University of B.C. associate
professor and ICSDP founder Evan Wood chaired the writing committee.

"There is no evidence that increasing the ferocity of law enforcement
meaningfully reduces the prevalence of drug use," the declaration says.

"Billions of tax dollars [are] wasted on a 'war on drugs' approach to
drug control that does not achieve its stated objectives."

Wood often refers to the results Portugal achieved by decriminalizing
all drugs - including heroin and cocaine - in 2001. And a 2009 Cato
Institute report on Portugal's experience shows that dealing with drug
use as a health and social issue, rather than as a crime, produces
surprising results.

Before Portugal decriminalized drugs, opponents of the plan predicted
vast increases in drug abuse and warned the country would attract
hordes of drug tourists.

"None of the nightmare scenarios . . . has occurred," says the Cato
report by Glenn Greenwald. "While drug addiction, usage, and
associated pathologies continue to skyrocket in many EU states, those
problems - in virtually every relevant category - have been either
contained or measurably improved within Portugal since 2001."

In Portugal, it's still against the law to possess or use illicit
drugs. Drug trafficking is still a criminal offence. What's changed is
the response when people are caught for using or possessing a 10-day
supply of drugs or less.

There are no criminal charges, just a citation and a summons to a
three-member "dissuasion commission" composed of officials with
expertise in the law, health and social services.

Commission members hear the circumstances of the person and their drug
offence and determine whether the person is an addict. Fines can be
issued or fines can be issued then waived, conditional upon the person
entering a treatment program.

Public money saved by decriminalizing drugs has been diverted into
drug treatment, the Cato report says.

"Treatment programs - both in terms of funding levels and the
willingness of the population to seek them - have improved
substantially."

As well, the number of addicts newly infected with HIV has dropped
steadily since 2001.

Here in B.C., the political will to create more addiction-treatment
space falls far behind the need and our drug-related costs - financial
and human - continue out of control.

Decriminalization would free up millions of dollars for an expanded
treatment system and prevention programs. Unfortunately, the legal
changes are required at the federal level, where the Stephen Harper
government is going in the opposite direction.