ANTI-DRUG PLAN ANNOUNCED

Harper Announces $64m to Fight Dealers, Help Users

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is promising to put more drug dealers
behind bars and help users kick the habit as part of a $64-million
anti-drug strategy.

The government will introduce legislation this fall to make prison
time mandatory for serious drug offences, the prime minister said
Thursday. But he refused to be specific other than to say the proposed
law would focus on dealers.

"Currently, there are no minimum prison sentences for producing and
trafficking dangerous drugs like methamphetamine and cocaine," Harper
told workers at a Salvation Army centre in downtown Winnipeg. "These
are serious crimes. Those who commit them should do serious time."

But he also said the government wants to make "a distinction between
those who would simply be a user or an addict, and those who actually
deal and produce drugs in order to profit from other people's
addiction."

The Conservative plan includes a promise to help border guards find
drugs and the products used to manufacture crystal meth and other
substances. There will also be more resources for police to close down
marijuana grow operations.

But the prime minister took pains to stress a compassionate side to
the program, as well. Fully two-thirds of the money will go to
prevention and treatment for addicts and to promotional campaigns
encouraging young people to stay away from drugs.

"If drugs do get hold of you, there will be help to get you off
them."

While the federal New Democrats have called the plan a heavy-handed,
American-style war on drugs, police and addictions workers were quick
to applaud it.