Pubdate: Fri, 05 Oct 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: Jody Paterson, Times Colonist

WHY A WAR ON DRUGS JUST WON'T WORK

Basing policy on belief, not facts, dooms strategy to failure from the start

The problems of ideology-based governance clearly must be more 
obvious from afar. Otherwise, Canadians wouldn't be able to bear the 
hypocrisy of railing against oppressive and backward regimes 
elsewhere in the world while committing ourselves anew to the folly 
of a war on drugs.

With news this week that we're returning full-force to the same 
fruitless battle we've already lost several times over, Prime 
Minister Stephen Harper has once again reminded me why word of his 
2006 election plunged me into a pit of despair.

Here we are one more time, at least 60 years after we first heard 
from the experts that we were doing things all wrong, talking about 
"crackdowns" and the need to "get tough" with those who use illicit 
drugs. Posturing about all the butt-kicking we'll be doing at the 
border once our new anti-drug strategy is in place. Planning the 
latest version of an earnest but pointless campaign to convince 
teenagers not to use drugs.

Small wonder I eventually lost my appetite for journalism when I 
think how many times I've witnessed this particular story cycle 
unfold. The real tragedy is that the misuse of drugs continues to 
cost us $40 billion a year in Canada in direct and indirect costs, 
and that's not even counting all the billions we've thrown away on 
misguided and ideologically driven attempts to do something about that.

Here's the thing: Health issues can't be resolved through ideology.

For the most part, we understand that. You wouldn't catch us 
scrapping radiation therapy as a treatment for cancer, for instance, 
based solely on some politician's belief that the only cure is to eat 
lots of vegetables. Were we to elect Jehovah's Witnesses to office, I 
can't see us banning blood transfusions.

So why do we continue to let our elected politicians ignore the 
science when it comes to drug issues? Why should anybody's poorly 
informed position around drug use be the lens that we apply when 
trying to address complex health and social problems that are far too 
important to be left to political whim?

I respect the right of Stephen Harper and his MPs to believe that 
using illicit drugs is bad. It's a free country and they're welcome 
to their opinions, and never mind that alcohol is actually Canada's 
most dangerous and readily available drug by a long shot. (The social 
costs of alcohol use in Canada are more than double that of all 
illicit drugs combined and health-related costs are three times higher.)

But why would we want to base something as important as our national 
drug strategy on opinion and belief?

We've got six decades worth of scientific studies underlining the 
importance of an informed, health-based approach in reducing the harm 
and societal costs of drug use. Yet we're still letting vital public 
policy be decided by people who would rather maintain their personal 
fictions than take steps to fix the problems.

"This is a failed approach," University of B.C. researcher Thomas 
Kerr commented to the media this week about the Harper government's 
intention to launch yet another anti-drug strategy rooted almost 
entirely in enforcement. "The experiment is done. The science is in."

We've researched drug-use issues from every possible angle over the 
years, and have established an astonishing amount of consensus at the 
scientific level in terms of how Canada can best manage problems 
related to drug and alcohol use. We verified a long, long time ago 
that concentrating our efforts on enforcement is not only futile as a 
way of reducing much of the problem, but also alarmingly costly.

But our current federal drug strategy devotes almost three-quarters 
of its annual $245-million budget to enforcement. The updated 
strategy being touted by the Harper government offers more of the 
same -- and less of what's actually working. Highly successful 
harm-reduction strategies like Vancouver's safer-injection site are 
rumoured to be on the chopping block.

What is it that we're trying to change? If it's the flow of drugs 
into our country, then we need to tackle the issues of demand. We can 
knock ourselves out trying to stop drugs at the border, but they're 
going to find their way in no matter what as long as there are 
Canadians to buy them.

If it's the health risks we're worried about, then we need to be 
providing honest information to everyone who might use drugs, 
particularly pre-teens heading into the inevitable experimental years.

The key word is "honest," which implies being truthful about which 
drugs are truly the scary ones.

Our old friend alcohol certainly wouldn't fare well in that 
truth-telling. The annual health costs from alcohol consumption in 
Canada are almost 45 times that of marijuana, and alcohol is far and 
away the most dangerous drug of all to use during pregnancy.

If it's drug addiction that we want to have an impact on, that 
entails dramatic, system-wide change, because we're doing almost 
nothing right on that front at the moment. Addiction is a health 
issue, plain and simple. We'll get somewhere when we start treating 
it like one.

So with all due respect, Mr. Harper, believe whatever you like in 
your personal life. But as prime minister, please run this country on 
facts and not fiction. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake