WAR ON DRUGS DOOMED AGAIN

Our Conservative minority government in Ottawa is trotting out
another old policy warhorse that will surely please the party's base
voter constituency - yet another war on drugs.

Health Minister Tony Clement's latest offensive will entail stiffer
penalties for drug offenders and more money to stop drugs from
getting across the border. There will also be a massive campaign to
warn young people not to use drugs.

What is missing is more funding to provide detox services to help
those hooked on drugs to get straightened out.

And what's missing is any effort to halt the source of illicit drugs
in the first place.

Even when we have our own military stationed in fighting mode in
Afghanistan, one of the largest producers of the poppy plants that
fuel the heroin trade around the world, we do nothing.

When Clement makes his pitch to us, no doubt it will have the same
ring of political spin with little backbone as does U.S. President
George Bush talking about the need to get his country to weed itself
of its addiction to oil, while at the same time accepting the oil
industry as one of his greatest financial benefactors, both
personally and politically.

Enforcement of drug laws is important, but so are prevention,
treatment and harm reduction initiatives.

Simply running ads that say taking drugs is bad will have little impact.

People from all walks of life, rich and poor, educated and
illiterate, can succumb to the ravages of drug addiction.

Either address the sources of the illicit drug trade or beef up
treatment services, but sitting on the fence and doing neither won't
accomplish very much.