STEPHEN HARPER: MY ANTI-DRUG

On October 4th, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Minister of Health
Tony Clement, and Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day jointly
announced the new National Anti-Drug Strategy. Billed as a
two-pronged effort to crack down on drug offences while being
compassionate to victims, the "new" anti-drug strategy is similar to
past political jargon.

The strategy will spend a combined $63.8 million over two years,
focusing on three initiatives: law enforcement, a national prevention
campaign, and treatment services for substance abuse.

Balancing enforcement and recovery, the policy seems to be an attempt
at electioneering-an easy grab at the votes of those who want a
tougher stance on crime, though mild enough not to offend the more
libertarian among us. As a minority government trying to make it
through October without the call for an election, the Harper
government has taken a balanced approach to combating drugs in Canada.

With $32.2 million reserved for treatment, $21.6 million for law
enforcement, and $10 million for a preventative campaign, this drug
strategy is not what many on the left expected from the Conservative
government. However, its approach does fall into the problematic
practice of treating users and punishing traffickers without
acknowledging that many traffickers are users who, left without help,
turn to selling.

The policy reserves $32.2 million over two years to "support
treatment services that will address substance abuse," as the 2007
budget's website reports. Despite this emphasis on "treatment
services," it is frustrating to find innovative projects such as
Vancouver's Insite to be in a constant state of limbo.

The safe injection site is currently running on a six-month extension
of its legality. Harper has stated that he is "skeptical" of programs
like Insite, despite the facility's support and backing by many in
the scientific community. Meanwhile, the Conservatives' new strategy
has devoted a third of their budget to law enforcement, which can't
be expected to improve the wellness of people caught in the cycle of
drug addiction.

With a backlog of scientific evidence that testifies to its benefits,
Insite should be embraced and expanded, not ignored and discredited.

Also included in the new anti-drug strategy are mandatory minimum
sentencing rules, which Harper says will be used for "serious drug
offences." This approach can be jarring when applied to users as well
as traffickers. The truth of the drug world is that many times drug
users are forced into drug trafficking as a means of feeding their
habit. If mandatory minimums are extended to users, the Conservative
"treatment services" may be nothing more than a three month jail sentence.

The federal government has repeatedly shown an unwillingness to take
serious steps to reduce harm to existing users of hard drugs. Therein
lies the problem with this new policy: what it omits.

Intravenous drug users in Vancouver and across Canada are overdosing
and contracting HIV for lack of facilities that accept their
condition. A realistic new strategy must acknowledge the needs of
existing drug addicts. They're not going away. To think otherwise
would be a grave mistake.