INJECTION SITES MAY SAVE LIVES

The recommendation expected today from a parliamentary committee to
decriminalize the possession of small amounts of pot might be enough to
convince U.S. drug czar John Walters that Canadian lawmakers have got a
jump on sampling the goodies.

After all, the call to ease up on draconian drug laws that have branded
600,000 Canadians with criminal records over the years comes from an
all-party group of MPs that on Monday advocated a clinical trial to supply
heroin to addicts, provide safe-injection sites for needle-drug users and
convert two jails to treatment centres for addicted prisoners.

While Walters and others continue to advocate their "war on drugs," whose
futility is evident on the streets in rising addiction rates and overdose
deaths even as policing costs and prison populations swell, it's
encouraging to see Canada moving to treat addiction as a serious medical
and social problem rather than a strict law enforcement challenge.

The move to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana for
personal use, legislation which Justice Minister Martin Cauchon hopes to
introduce early in 2003, is long overdue.

And, despite the misgivings of Alliance MP Randy White, vice-chair of the
Commons committee, the pilot projects to establish safe injection sites in
Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, where addicts can shoot up in safety under
supervised conditions, are well worth the effort.

So is the clinical trial to provide heroin to a select group of long-term
addicts who've been unsuccessful in kicking their habit with other
treatment methods including at least two tries at methadone substitution.

While White rejects such harm-reduction strategies and sees them rather as
"harm extension" moves, there's evidence from countries such as Switzerland
which have established safe injections sites that it can reduce the spread
of HIV and other diseases through shared needles and prevent many overdose
deaths.

David Griffin, executive officer of the Canadian Police Association,
predictably trots out the "slippery slope" argument, suggesting that "it
won't be long that we'll be getting calls for dispensing drugs in those
sites as well," and about criminal drug users and pushers congregating near
legal injection sites.

As if having addicts shooting up and dying in nearly every alleyway,
building alcove, shoolyard and green space in areas such as downtown east
Vancouver is better public policy.

Surely, the four-pillar approach being proposed for Vancouver -- treatment,
prevention, harm reduction and enforcement -- is worth trying, even if the
harm-reduction component includes setting up shooting galleries. Perhaps
the centres can't help the crack addicts who need to shoot up many times a
day, but surely that's no reason to try to do something about the dozens of
other needle-drug addicts who end up diseased or deceased from their habit.

Rather than the free-for-all envisioned by the likes of White and Griffin,
the pilot injection sites could be geared to accommodate addicts who are
referred by police or health-care and social outreach workers.

Combined with the kind of improved access to treatment centres envisioned
under the Commons committee's proposals, addicts ready to make a change
have access through the safe sites to health-care workers who can put them
on the road to getting the help they want.

Vancouver MP Libby Davies typically overshoots the mark when she says of
the committee's work: "If the Americans don't like it, tough."

However, there's some hope that a health-based approach to handling drug
addicts in Canada may succeed where the war on drugs has failed. Surely,
it's no more a pipe dream than Walters's insistence on doing more of the
same in hopes of a different result.