Pubdate: Tue, 12 Nov 2002
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2002 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Andre Lachance
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)

[Vancouver Sun Editorial Introduction:
While many professionals endorse safe injection sites and clean needles for 
drug addicts, other counsellors think a combination of jail and treatment 
is the best answer]

ON PINS AND NEEDLES, 3 of 5

If anyone has a financial interest in maintaining our expensive and 
obviously failed approach to the drug problem, it is the police. The 
federal auditor general has pointed out that 95 per cent of the money that 
Canadians spend on the drug problem is gobbled up by enforcement initiatives.

It is time to stop letting cops dictate our response to the drug problem in 
Vancouver. The war on drugs has failed. It is time to take a sensible and 
comprehensive approach that includes all four pillars, including harm 
reduction. We need an approach like the one Mayor Philip Owen championed 
and the one mayoral candidate Jennifer Clarke pays lip service to.

Andre Lachance

Vancouver
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D