WILL HARM REDUCTION BE A VICTIM IN HARPER'S WAR ON DRUGS?

Vancouver East NDP MP Libby Davies knows all about the war on drugs,
especially after a trip earlier this month to New Orleans, where she
saw the effects of the Bush administration's policies. For one, she
told the Georgia Straight, there is too much of a focus on "crime and
punishment", which she claimed has "destroyed" millions of lives in the U.S.

Davies was attending a drug-policy-reform conference, where she
picked up the Gerald Le Dain Award for her liberal views regarding
harm reduction. (Le Dain was the former Supreme Court of Canada
justice who headed the commission on the nonmedical use of drugs. He
passed away at the age of 83 on December 18.)

Now, Davies worries that the war on drugs is coming to Canada,
courtesy of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. "In fact, it is very
ironic, because the debate is beginning to change in the U.S.," she
said by phone. "A number of states are now looking at repealing their
minimum mandatory sentencing for drug crimes. And yet here is Harper
gnashing his teeth and ready to go."

These last comments refer to Harper's National Anti-Drug Strategy,
unveiled in Winnipeg on October 4, and also to Bill C-26, meant to
provide minimum penalties for serious drug offences. Bill C-26 was
introduced in the House of Commons on November 21.

"Currently there are no minimum prison sentences for producing and
trafficking dangerous drugs like methamphetamine and cocaine," Harper
said in a speech given at Winnipeg's Salvation Army. "But these are
serious crimes. Those who commit them will do serious time."

Last week, the Georgia Straight reported that Harper's strategy is
"heavy on enforcement and includes treatment and prevention, but it
leaves out harm reduction". Provincial health officer Dr. Perry
Kendall called the approach "blinkered thinking".

Davies vowed to make harm reduction an issue in a potential 2008
federal election and "take it on" at every chance she gets.
Meanwhile, Vancouver Centre Liberal MP Hedy Fry told the Straight she
"could have said exactly what Perry Kendall said in the [Straight] article".

In 2000, Fry and Davies both helped create the Vancouver Agreement,
which involved all three levels of government and set the city on the
road to developing the country's first supervised-injection site. The
agreement promotes and supports sustainable economic, social, and
community development. Fry worries that any progress in promoting
harm reduction is in jeopardy under the Conservative government, and
she hopes to prevent any rollbacks.

Fry said she doesn't want to have to think about harm reduction as an
election issue, as she sees it as far more urgent than that.

"By the time the election comes, how many people will have died?" she
asked. "Harm reduction is the essence of public health."

Former Conservative MP Randy White helped shape Harper's strategy,
thanks to his role in the Ottawa-based lobby group the Drug
Prevention Network of Canada, which advised Harper. During his speech
in Winnipeg, Harper thanked the group for its work.

In a press scrum following the announcement, Fry claimed she had
heard Harper state that he does not believe in harm reduction.

"When he says that, the ignorance and the ludicrousness of Stephen
Harper hits you hard," Fry said.

Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan, who has ties to the Conservatives, told
the Straight he does not believe Harper was missing a piece of the
puzzle with regard to harm reduction.

"I heard the prime minister speak, and he talked about 'innovative
treatment options'," Sullivan said. "I definitely heard those words
mentioned. I also heard a lot about treatment and prevention, and I
did not read into that strategy--which is from the [federal] Ministry
of Health--that we're going to be dealing with enforcement issues
through the Health Ministry."

Sullivan said the trips he's made to Ottawa have made him more optimistic.

"I do find that, each time I go, there are little shifts in approach
to policy that give me a lot of hope," he said. "I think it is a
matter of thinking how far this city [Vancouver] has come in the last
10 years. We have an advantage--I suppose you could call it an
advantage--in that we have had to deal with the issue much more
dramatically than other areas, and we have had a chance to wrestle
with it and come up with some general approach. I think other levels
of government maybe don't deal with this issue with the magnitude
that we do. I think it will take them a while to evolve their thinking."