CITY'S DRUG STRATEGY IS DOPEY

We won't ask what they've been smoking.

But if Toronto councillors embrace the new "drug strategy" that will
be proposed to them at this week's council meeting without asking
some serious questions, we will demand to know (not for the first
time) what the heck they're thinking.

It's bad enough that the city spent a whopping $300,000 just to put
together this call for -- among other things -- more city-financed
"harm reduction" efforts like "safer crack kits" (packages of
syringes and other drug paraphernalia that are handed out to addicts
to make it easier for them to inject themselves with their chosen
poison -- safely). It also says the city should consider setting up
its own "safe injection site," modelled on the controversial one in
Vancouver, where addicts can shoot drugs with a roof over their heads.

Given that former Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell -- a pioneer of the
safe-injection site -- was recently invited to speak to councillors
on this issue (and had his accommodation paid for by the mayor's
office, according to the Sun's Sue-Ann Levy), we suspect council is
already inclined to favour this trendy but highly dubious approach to drugs.

Even advocates admit they don't know if harm reduction programs
actually work -- but that hasn't stopped the city from funding the
crack kits, several of which have turned up, as Levy recently
reported, in public parks near schools.

While no doubt some of the strategy's recommendations are sensible
(the health board passed them with flying colours), there's a
disturbing absence of emphasis on enforcement.

Earth to councillors: This city is in the throes of a gang crime
crisis due mainly to the thriving drug trade! Never mind safe crack
use, let's talk about making streets safe from criminals!

Campbell and others argue that harm reduction efforts help police,
but Toronto residents in areas where crack kits are given out say
they've only seen the problem get worse.

Councillor Kyle Rae -- who, as a representative of an area scarred by
drug dealing, should know better -- touts the new strategy, saying,
"There's been no comprehensive strategy since crack arrived in
Toronto in 1988." That is simply shameful.

Let's not make it worse by ramming through a well-meaning strategy
that is full of (pardon the expression) cracks.