ANTI-DRUG STRATEGY NOT UP TO THE TASK

Re: Ont.'s failure to ban drug displays 'silly,' by Sharon Hill, Jan. 28.

If the notion that displays serve as "unwanted temptation for
recovering drug addicts and can give kids the impression that drug use
is condoned" are to be taken as legitimate concerns, it follows that
those concerns reflect the inadequacies of the drug treatment programs
offered, of what children are taught and the failings of the anti-drug
strategy itself.

With less than an adequate funding to meet needs, no consideration of
harm reduction models, questionable ethics of drug awareness aimed at
youth, and an inherently dysfunctional anti-drug strategy what is
surprising is that the situation is far worse.

But no worries, Harper's Bill S-10 will change that.

In the interim such bans will have the effect of adding to the
forbidden fruit mystique which already exists around drugs.

What is silly is the Reefer Madness overtones of it
all.

WAYNE PHILLIPS, Hamilton