LEWIS REJECTS WAR ON DRUGS

Employing a U.S.-style "war on drugs" will drive up the prison
population and HIV infection rates without curbing drug abuse, UN
special envoy Stephen Lewis has warned.

Canada instead should concentrate on the harm-reduction approach
exemplified by Vancouver's safe injection site, said Lewis,
scholar-in-residence at McMaster University's Institute on
Globalization and the Human Condition.

"There is a tremendous tension between criminalizing the lives of drug
users and seeing it as a question of public health," he said in an
interview. "I feel that the entire harm-reduction emphasis is a matter
of public health.

"There is a tendency now, of course, to try to harmonize with U.S.
policy where the war on drugs has resulted in mandatory minimum
sentencing and that has proven to be unsuccessful," he added.

"It has increased the prison populations greatly, but it certainly
hasn't resulted in any objective end to the drug trade or the
rehabilitation of people . . . or indeed any improvement in society
generally, so I hope Canada won't follow that road."