Pubdate: Sat, 06 Oct 2007
Source: Nanaimo News Bulletin (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007, BC Newspaper Group
Contact:  http://www.nanaimobulletin.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/948

WAR ON DRUGS DOOMED AGAIN

Our Conservative minority government in Ottawa is  trotting out 
another old policy warhorse that will  surely please the party's base 
voter constituency -  yet another war on drugs.

Health Minister Tony Clement's latest offensive will  entail stiffer 
penalties for drug offenders and more  money to stop drugs from 
getting across the border.  There will also be a massive campaign to 
warn young  people not to use drugs.

What is missing is more funding to provide detox  services to help 
those hooked on drugs to get  straightened out.

And what's missing is any effort to halt the source of  illicit drugs 
in the first place.

Even when we have our own military stationed in  fighting mode in 
Afghanistan, one of the largest  producers of the poppy plants that 
fuel the heroin  trade around the world, we do nothing.

When Clement makes his pitch to us, no doubt it will  have the same 
ring of political spin with little  backbone as does U.S. President 
George Bush talking  about the need to get his country to weed itself 
of its  addiction to oil, while at the same time accepting the  oil 
industry as one of his greatest financial  benefactors, both 
personally and politically.

Enforcement of drug laws is important, but so are  prevention, 
treatment and harm reduction initiatives.

Simply running ads that say taking drugs is bad will  have little impact.

People from all walks of life, rich and poor, educated  and 
illiterate, can succumb to the ravages of drug  addiction.

Either address the sources of the illicit drug trade or  beef up 
treatment services, but sitting on the fence  and doing neither won't 
accomplish very much.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom