DRUG STRATEGY FAILS TO ADDRESS HARM REDUCTION

Re: Murder rate falls, but violent crime on the rise, Oct. 17.

What I would like to know, because I think it would be most
illuminating, is how many gun crimes are products or unintended
consequences of drug prohibition.

These kinds of crimes are seldom random, but rather targeted
assassinations: as drug dealers battle over turf or unpaid drug
debts. This is how business is conducted in a context of prohibition
- -- as it was also under alcohol prohibition.

But the government and law enforcement agencies never talk about
prohibition-related deaths -- they talk about drug crimes and
drug-related killings. In fact, they're not killing over drugs per
se, but over drug profits -- which are a consequence of prohibition.

The Conservative government's omnibus crime bill apes the worst of
what doesn't work in the U.S.

The government plays on citizens' fear of crime but ignores its own
numbers which show that crime (including homicide) has been in
continuous decline for the past 25 years, according to Statistics Canada.

Police reported 605 homicides in Canada during 2006, 58 fewer than
the previous year. Following two years of increases, the national
homicide rate fell by 10 per cent to 1.85 homicides per 100,000 population.

The national anti-drug strategy is ill-conceived and punitive, making
no pretense to be evidence-based or modeled on best practices. The
words "harm reduction" do not even appear in the prime minister's
introductory remarks, though harm reduction is the bedrock principle
of every expert drug and addictions specialist community from the
World Health Organization to the Canadian Medical Association.

Manipulating citizens through the fear of crime is regressive and
unworthy -- nor does it make anyone safer. We know, from looking
south, what does not work to make citizens and communities safer. Why
would this government copy that example?

Craig Jones, Kingston

Executive director, The John Howard Society of Canada