OTTAWA'S HYPOCRITICAL DRUG POLICIES

ACcording To The Feds, Tobacco Is Bad But Marijuana Is Now Good?

It was Health Minister Tony Clement who first pointed out the hypocrisy of
recent suggestions by a federal justice committee that simple marijuana
possession should be decriminalized and "safe" injection sites should be
set up for drug users.

This is, after all, the same federal government that pays millions of
dollars every year for advertising campaigns discouraging young people from
smoking tobacco.

Doctors' groups will tell you that it's not the nicotine in tobacco that's
so bad for you, it's the dirty method of delivering that drug to your body
- - the smoke. The same holds for smoking dope.

"This is another type of pollution of one's body, quite frankly, and if we
want to concern ourselves with health and wellness, this seems to be going
the other direction," Clement said on Tuesday.

London Fanshawe MPP Frank Mazzilli, a former London police officer, says
there are serious law enforcement issues around the decriminalization of
pot and "safe" injection sites.

"There is huge demand in the province for all kinds of drugs, from
steroids, to marijuana to Ecstasy," says Mazzilli. He believes once kids
experiment with marijuana, it's not such a big step to move on to other,
more dangerous drugs, like Ecstasy, which is no longer just used in clubs.
It's now showing up at high school dances. And there have been numerous
overdoses.

Former Canadian heavyweight champion George Chuvalo, whose three sons died
of heroin abuse, recently joined the campaign against drug abuse.

Mazzilli points out that Chuvalo tells kids his sons' addiction wasn't
something that happened suddenly.

"His kids didn't wake up one day and decide to stick a heroin needle in
their veins," he says.

"They started smoking, they started using alcohol. His message is once
you've done one, it's easier to go to the next step," says Mazzilli.

"That's the message we have to get across if we are going to get the
consumption numbers down.

"They didn't start out as heroin addicts."

RIDE programs effective

Mazzilli says drunk driving campaigns have been highly effective, not just
in reducing the number of people who drive while impaired, but in reducing
the degree to which they are impaired.

"I can remember 25 years ago, you'd stop a car and they'd fall out of the
door, or they'd pass out at a red light. They weren't impaired, they were
drunk," he says.

As for impaired driving, he says the federal proposals set the province
back 50 years, because there's no easy way to test if a driver has been
using drugs.

"Drunk driving can be dealt with because there's an instrument you blow
into and it gives you a reading. There is no instrument you can blow into
that gives you the reading of marijuana," he points out. The only reliable
method of detection is a blood test, and it's unlikely you'll see fleets of
cop cars ferrying suspected doped-up drivers to an ER for a drug test.

As for "safe" houses for intravenous drug users, Mazzilli says the term is
an oxymoron. There is no safe way to inject drugs. Studies in the UK showed
no benefits, although it did reduce the number of drug dealers, since the
government was dealing drugs, thus putting pushers out of business. The
issue then becomes this: do you really want your government in the drug
business?

"You are into some real moral and ethical dilemmas when the state does
that," says Mazzilli.

'Lock and key'

"If the Crown is going to inject somebody, they had better have authority
to keep that person under lock and key and don't dare let them out into
society.

"Who is going to take responsibility if that person kills someone, or
whatever else they do under the influence of drugs like heroin or cocaine?"

Odd, isn't it, that if the feds have their way, we'll become a country
where you can't smoke a cigarette in a family restaurant, but the
government will inject you with hard drugs. You could smoke marijuana with
the government's blessing but risk becoming a social outcast if you dare
smoke tobacco. Are the feds hoping to cash in on taxes from pot sales? Will
we have an MCBO to distribute pot here?

Look, they're all unhealthy addictions and the government shouldn't be
encouraging the use - or abuse - of drugs, booze or cigarettes.