WAR ON DRUGS HAS BEEN A WASTE OF MONEY

The federal auditor general has decried Canada's useless war against
illegal drugs.

So has a special parliamentary committee.

Now, in a new study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal,
researchers have come to the same conclusion.

The millions of dollars we spend annually to crack down on the use of
illicit drugs is a big huge waste of time.

The biggest heroin haul in Canadian history - 100 kilograms of the stuff,
seized by Vancouver police in 2000 - didn't make the slightest dent in
supply, the researchers found.

Heroin was just as easy to get in the weeks after the bust and the price
actually went down, according to the study.

"We saw literally zero impact on the street," noted Dr. Martin Schechter,
senior author of the paper.

He and his colleagues echoed the plea that's been made by other health
professionals for years. We have to treat drug use as a health problem, not
a criminal matter.

The parliamentary committee on the non-medical use of drugs made the same
observation in its report last month.

The primary focus of Canada's drug strategy has been on reducing the supply
of illicit drugs to the detriment of resources needed to reduce demand, the
committee lamented.

"A renewed ... strategy must focus on a health-based approach," it advised.

The committee went on to note that residential services for young drug
abusers are "virtually non-existent" and treatment for opiate addiction is
woefully inadequate.

Overall, the committee criticized the lack of rehabilitation and social
services to help addicts and their families cope with substance abuse.

"This is short-sighted and a fundamental flaw in our current health
system," the committee wrote.

It's not as if Ottawa hasn't heard all this before. Federal Auditor General
Sheila Fraser tore a strip off the federal government a year ago because it
has no idea whether the $500 million it pours into drug enforcement
annually has any effect.

If there have been any successes, the parliamentary committee certainly
couldn't find them.

There wasn't a shred of evidence submitted during the hearings that
supports our ongoing police crackdown on illegal drugs.

"The committee is seriously concerned with the apparent lack of information
on the achievements and shortcomings of the federal drug strategy," the
report explained.

Ottawa should place high priority on prevention, education and
harm-reduction initiatives, and on developing a clear set of achievable
goals and measurable outcomes, the committee concluded.

It is no surprise that the Vancouver researchers in the latest study have
also embraced the harm-reduction approach.

It is the only option that makes sense amid overwhelming evidence that vast
amounts of money spent on interdiction efforts do not stop people intent on
getting high.

There are those who will argue that $500 million a year on drug enforcement
isn't enough.

Well, the U.S. spends $19 billion annually to fight illegal drugs - double
the 1990 budget - yet drug use is increasing.

More people are dying from substance abuse as well. The death rate from
illegal drugs has more than doubled since 1979 and the number of people
going to emergency rooms for treatment for adverse drug reactions is up 50%
since 1988.

"We're not hurting the people we're supposed to be hurting (the
traffickers), but we're hurting the people we're supposed to be helping,"
says Eric Sterling, head of the U.S. Criminal Justice Policy Foundation.

The entire annual cocaine supply destined for the U.S. could fit in 13
shipping containers, notes Eugene Oscapella of the Canadian Foundation for
Drug Policy.

In Los Angeles alone, 130,000 shipping containers arrive every month, he
says. Canada's annual coke supply - about 15 tonnes - would fill one
transport truck, he adds. And Ottawa is still under the pitiful illusion we
can keep illicit drugs off our streets.