GET-TOUGH PLAN ON DRUGS DOOMED, EXPERTS SAY

Liberal MP calls Tories' policy a triumph of 'ideology over science,'
urges medical, not moral, approach to issue

Canada's war on drugs is about to escalate. But as the federal
Conservative governments prepares to unveil a new strategy that
cracks down on illicit drug users, critics say they are ignoring a
mountain of research that shows the get-tough approach doesn't work.

"This is a failed approach. The experiment is done. The science is
in," says Thomas Kerr, a researcher at the University of British
Columbia and member of the university's faculty of medicine.

The $64-million anti-drug strategy, to be announced in the next few
days, is expected to include stiffer penalties for drug offenders and
more money to stop drugs getting across the border. There will also
be a massive campaign to warn young people not to use drugs.

It is not expected, says Liberal MP Keith Martin, to include money
for what experts call "harm reduction." These are programs such as
Vancouver's controversial safe injection site, where heroin addicts
can shoot up in a sterilized, supervised setting.

The idea behind harm reduction is to reduce the health effects of
drug use without requiring people to beat their addiction. Experts
compare it with smokers using a nicotine patch; people still get
their fix, but it is vastly preferable to smoking a pack a day.

A study published by Dr. Kerr and his colleagues last year found that
the Vancouver supervised injection site, known as Insite, reduced the
risk of overdoses and encouraged more users to seek treatment. It did
not increase crime in the neighbourhood, nor lead to increased drug use.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said he does not think the site
should receive federal health money, and Health Canada must make a
decision about the future of Insite by the end of the year.

Dr. Martin, a physician from British Columbia, says the
Conservatives' approach is a triumph of "ideology over science."
While he supports more money for police to go after drug dealers or
organized crime, Dr. Martin says substance abuse needs to be treated
as a medical problem, not a moral one.

That's the approach taken in many European countries that have much
lower rates of illicit drug use than Canada, he said.

Erik Waddell, a spokesman for Health Minister Tony Clement, said
yesterday that the minister was travelling and would not be available
for an interview.

Mr. Waddell said he couldn't discuss the details of the new strategy
either. But earlier this year, he told The Globe and Mail that the
Conservatives disagreed with the Liberals' approach. "In every poll,
when Canadians are asked whether they want more law enforcement or
less, they want more. So the bottom line is that Canada's new
government will be taking a different approach."

The Liberals had put forward a bill to decriminalize the possession
of small amounts of marijuana, but the Conservatives did not
reintroduce it after taking office in early 2006.

But the Liberals were also harshly criticized - by academics, doctors
and the federal auditor-general - for focusing too much on enforcement.

The current drug strategy, which was renewed in 2003, devotes almost
three-quarters of its resources to enforcement. Only 3 per cent of
the annual $245-million goes to prevention, and another 3 per cent to
harm reduction.

Barney Savage, director of public policy at the Centre for Addiction
and Mental Health in Toronto, says law enforcement is extremely
important, but so is prevention, treatment and harm reduction. "You
have to balance the law enforcement perspective with the health perspective."

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police also advocates a
balanced approach in dealing with drug abuse and addiction issues.