WE NEED SOLUTIONS, NOT RHETORIC

Taking advice about drug policy from the U.S. makes about as much sense as
hiring Saddam Hussein as a foreign policy advisor.

Every aspect of U.S. drug policy has been a costly, stunning failure,
wrecking lives and whole cities while achieving absolutely nothing. And yet
here's a U.S. drug czar, flying in to Vancouver to warn that we're heading
for major trouble with our drug policies.

David Murray, special assistant in the Office of National Drug Control
Policy, said crazy ideas like decriminalizing marijuana possession and
opening a safe injection site in Vancouver will lead to no good.

The U.S. will even have to tighten border controls, hurting the Canadian
economy, said Murray, whose visit was aimed at persuading police,
politicians and media that Canada should copy the U.S. war on drugs.

Murray didn't just use threats of U.S. retaliation. He also warned that we
will be stumbling towards disaster.

Decriminalize marijuana, and more kids will use it, police will be swamped
and vulnerable minority communities will be turned into dazed potheads,
Murray claimed. Safe injection sites will also lead to something bad, he
said, although he was vague about what that might be.

Murray couldn't offer any evidence for his claims.

In fact, the reality is that marijuana use has gone down among youth in
Holland, which took marijuana use out of the criminal process. And every
country that has tried to deal with heroin and other drug addictions as a
medical problem has reported fewer deaths, less crime, lower health care
costs and fewer addicts.

Compare that with the U.S. record. America has been waging a stupid, costly
and ineffective war on drugs for decades. The result has been more
addiction, deaths, crime and social decay. Twenty years ago there were
about 80,000 drug offenders in U.S. jails; now there are 400,000, at a cost
of $16 billion a year. Drugs are far more potent, far more widely available
and far more widely used. There is more crime, more shattered families and
more death.

The U.S. approach has been tried. And it has failed.

I feel a little foolish even using this space to respond to Murray's
nonsense. He claimed that people need the threat of the "sanctions of law
enforcement" or they have no reason to give up drugs. As if disease,
poverty, despair and the threat of death weren't enough.

He claimed marijuana is the first step on the ladder of drugs, even though
a study last year by the U.S. RAND think-tank found that people who are
going to use hard drugs will start with whatever is easiest to get --
whether that's beer, pot, or glue.

And asked for evidence that the U.S. approach to drugs is better than other
approaches, Murray had nothing to offer.

The problem with this kind of misinformation, and U.S. pressure, is that
we're talking about a life-and-death issue. Drugs do take a terrible toll.
Peoples' lives are destroyed, families are shattered and communities are
terribly damaged. Organized criminals profit, and addicts commit countless
small and stupid crimes.

But that makes it all the more important that we tackle the problem
sensibly, based on what works, not slogans.

If our goal is to reduce the damage done to individuals and communities by
intravenous drug use, then safe injection sites and other harm reduction
measures have been proven to be the most effective path. They save lives,
and offer a gateway to health care services, addiction programs and
employment, while reducing crime.

If our goal is to keep organized criminals from an expanding role in the
marijuana trade, then perhaps we could make the biggest gains by
eliminating the risk of prosecution for people interested in growing a few
plants.

We don't need a war on drugs, which generally turns out to be a war on the
most vulnerable members of society.

We need education to help people avoid addiction and abuse, support for
people who want to quit and harm reduction for people who can't or won't quit.

WE NEED SOLUTIONS, NOT RHETORIC.