Pubdate: Wed, 23 May 2007
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Janice Tibbetts, CanWest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

TORIES TO LAUNCH CRACKDOWN ON GROW-OPS, DRUG DEALERS

The Harper government's new anti-drug strategy is expected to take a 
tough approach to illicit drugs, including cracking down on grow-ops 
and pushers and retreating from "harm reduction" measures such as 
safe injection sites for addicts.

The new strategy, slated to be announced next week, is also 
understood to include more money for treatment and a national 
drug-use prevention campaign.

The federal budget last March offered a glimpse of the strategy by 
allocating an additional $64 million over two years for enforcement, 
treatment, and prevention. But the budget figures did not mention 
harm-reduction measures, which aim to limit the spread of infectious 
diseases through substance abuse.

"They haven't explicitly said they are getting rid of harm reduction, 
but the budget numbers speak for themselves," said Leon Mar, 
spokesman for the Canadian HIV-AIDS Legal Network. "There is no money 
for harm reduction, which is quite ominous for what will be."

Joanne Csete, the network's executive director, recently wrote in a 
letter to parliamentarians that the Conservatives are contemplating 
"a U.S.-style war on drugs, an approach that has proven time and time 
again to be counter-productive and a tragic waste of public funds."

Of the new money allocated in the federal budget, $22 million would 
go to law-enforcement efforts to crack down on marijuana grow 
operations and to catch and convict drug dealers. Drug treatment 
programs would get a boost of $32 million, including money for 
research aimed at treating crystal methamphetamine addicts.

And another $10 million would be spent on a prevention campaign for 
young people and their parents. Tony Cannavino, president of the 
Canadian Police Association, said a national "say-no-to-drugs" 
campaign would counter a perception among young people that marijuana 
is legal, in light of a failed Liberal bid to decriminalize the 
possession of small amounts of the drug.

The new Conservative strategy is also expected to endorse 
drug-treatment courts, which already exist in Vancouver, Edmonton, 
Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto and Ottawa. Instead of criminal sanctions, 
drug addicts can be ordered into treatment programs.

Canada is currently operating under a 20-year-old national drug 
strategy that has been criticized for a lack of direction, targets, 
and measurable results. The government spends $385 million a year 
under the strategy, most of it on law-enforcement measures such as 
police investigations, prosecutions and border controls.

A large share of the spending also goes to treatment, prevention, and 
harm-reduction measures such as needle-exchange programs, in which 
addicts trade dirty needles for sterile ones, and a supervised 
injection site in Vancouver, where addicts can legally inject 
themselves with the help of medical professionals.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman