RCMP OFFICER MISINFORMED ON DRUG POLICY

Editor, The Record:

RCMP Staff Sgt. Doucette is clearly misinformed on drug policy
matters.

To be brief, number one, Health Canada has endorsed the use of
marijuana as medicine. I think they are a 'legitimate' organization.
They have issued hundreds of exemptions. As has the Ontario Court of
Appeals, which issued the now infamous Parker decision which has now
thrown all possession laws in Canada into limbo.

Number two, as regards clean needle exchanges, the scholarly evidence
is so overwhelming that they discourage the spread of disease that now
Sweden has announced they will start pilot programs to introduce this
harm reduction measure as part of their national drug policy.

Sweden is the only major European country that has fought to cling to
zero tolerance reasoning and policies despite the scholarly evidence
in drug policy, yet even their country will now institute clean needle
exchanges.

It is clear drug policy scholars should be designing our drug
policies, not police officers.

Matthew Hulett