Pubdate: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=4ba6868d-e796-43e7-bb04-f4c4f71d700c Copyright: 2006 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Ian Mulgrew Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction) MAYOR'S DRUG POLICY PLAN LONG OVERDUE Senator Campbell Wrongly Criticized Sullivan's Idea To Dispense Free Drugs To Addicts Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan is on the right track in wanting the city to embrace a new radical drug policy. We've spent millions of tax dollars over the last decade on police overtime and law-enforcement sweeps of the Downtown Eastside with nary a dent on the public disorder and street-market drug scene. Why not try something new? The attacks on Sullivan's plan to have medical staff dispense currently illicit substances seem to me misguided. Newly elevated Senator Larry Campbell is wrongly criticizing the mayor's plan. It flows, doesn't it, precisely from the old coroner's harm-reduction approach? Sounds to me like Campbell remains puckered over the civic election in which Sullivan kicked the butt of the made-for-TV mayor's anointed heir, Jim Green. Or maybe for the model of Da Vinci, it rubs the wrong way that Sullivan unexpectedly eclipsed his star with his performance at the Turin Olympics. Whatever -- I say Campbell is off base. Sullivan's suggestion is long overdue, in my opinion, and appears the only way to treat those who have fallen so far through the safety net they face death. He is not proposing to give the local stockbroker a flat of blow for a weekend binge. I think it's important to recognize Sullivan is picking up the torch of Campbell's predecessor, the true father of the city's harm-reduction program -- ex-mayor Philip Owen. Owen is championing this sort of novel thinking on drug policy and travels the globe for the United Nations and other groups to promote an end to the existing, near universal criminal Prohibition on illicit drugs. The strategy is gaining momentum. Owen, for instance, was among the many who turned out to support former Seattle police chief Norm Stamper, who stumped the Lower Mainland a few weeks ago urging exactly the kind of plan Sullivan suggests. More than that, Scottish police forces this month got on the bandwagon and urged their government to end Prohibition. They called for all drugs to be legalized, including cocaine and heroin, saying such measures are essential to tackle the spiralling problem. Strathclyde Police Federation, which represents nearly 7,700 officers, says drugs should be licensed for use by addicts. The federation issued a statement saying: "We are not winning the war against drugs and we need to think about different ways to tackle it." It says millions of pounds are wasted on futile efforts to combat drug abuse, with resources diverted from other police duties. In spite of the incredible work of diligent officers, there is no Scottish village free of drugs. The same is true up and down the B.C. coast and across our Interior. Police are not making a difference. After 30 years of a war on drugs, illicit narcotics are cheaper and more available than ever. Drug use is way up, not down. The current Prohibition achieves the exact opposite of its aim by making drug trafficking obscenely profitable. At the same time, addicts commit a disproportionate amount of crime compared with their small numbers. Yet imprisoning them is an expensive way to treat a health concern, contributes to congestion in the courts, exacerbates prison overcrowding and fails miserably to stem the steady flow of new users. Treatment must begin via contact with addicts and what better way to be in contact with them than to have them deal with medical staff instead of the corner pusher? And what better way to ensure they don't get the kind of impure product that leaves them dying or consuming expensive emergency room resources? Tobacco use is way down from where it was a decade or two ago -- and no one had to be imprisoned for smoking or threatened with a criminal record. There is every reason to believe illicit drug use similarly can be reduced through education and health programs much more effectively if the substances are legally available, regulated and controlled. What we're doing obviously doesn't work -- and Band-Aids won't suffice. The body politic requires radical surgery. Contrary to Campbell's bombast -- Sullivan is consulting with experts and community groups; he's not flying by the seat of his pants. Why not give a new approach a chance -- especially if there is private-sector funding to get it off the ground?