Pubdate: Thu, 04 Oct 2007
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2007 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: CanWest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

DRUG-WAR PLAN PANNED IN ADVANCE

Too Ideological:  MPs

A national anti-drug strategy that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is 
set to launch in Winnipeg today has been panned in advance by 
opposition party critics as too ideological.

The government is embracing a U.S.-style "war on drugs" that 
approaches drug abuse as more of a criminal matter than a health 
issue, Liberal and NDP critics said yesterday.

Vancouver Liberal MP Keith Martin, a surgeon, and New Democrat Libby 
Davies, her party's drug policy critic, used similar terms in 
separate interviews about the $64-million plan. Martin said pot and 
hard drugs like cocaine should not be equated in "an ideological war 
on drugs." Davies said Harper is "caught in an ideological time warp."

The plan is expected to include a major "no safe drugs" education 
campaign targeted at youth and parents, aimed in part at clearing up 
what Health Minister Tony Clement has said is "confusion" about the 
safety and legality of marijuana.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman