Pubdate: Fri, 12 Jul 2013
Source: Coast Reporter (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Coast Reporter
Contact:  http://www.coastreporter.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/580
Author: Paul Martiquet
Note: Editor's note: Dr. Paul Martiquet is the medical health officer 
for rural Vancouver Coastal Health including Powell River, the 
Sunshine Coast, Sea-to-Sky, Bella Bella and Bella Coola.

PRESCRIPTION FOR A FAILED DRUG POLICY

We recently discussed the failure of Canadian drug policy in these 
pages, along with a call by the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition (CDPC) 
to decriminalize currently illegal drugs and to regulate cannabis. 
The CDPC is a broad coalition of non-governmental organizations and 
individuals committed to improving Canadian drug policies to help 
people rather than criminalize them.

In Canada, drug crimes fall under the authority of the federal 
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and include possession, 
trafficking, importing and exporting and production-related offences. 
The Act, unfortunately, does not recognize that drugs such as alcohol 
and tobacco are at least as harmful as some illegal drugs. A 
multitude of harms result from fighting a 'war' on drugs that does 
not achieve its goals. The time has come to reduce the incidence of 
death, disease, crime and addiction. This can be done by ending drug 
prohibition and supporting a public health approach.

To that end, the CDPC recently delivered a report, Getting to 
tomorrow: A report on Canadian drug policy, that point the way to 
making the changes that will support people, not just criminalize 
them. Current Canadian drug policy reflects an outdated understanding 
of the problems related to substance use. Drug policies need to be 
reviewed, evaluated and updated where necessary. Getting to tomorrow 
identifies four broad areas for improvement to adequately address 
public health and safety issues related to drug markets and substance 
use in communities.

The first step is to modernize Canada's legislative, policy and 
regulatory frameworks in regards of psychoactive substances. We 
should eliminate the National Anti-Drug Strategy and replace it with 
a socially just, public health approach to substances that includes 
prevention, harm reduction, treatment, education, health promotion 
and enforcement. We also need to eliminate mandatory minimum 
sentences for drug crimes - they do not work and are costly. And 
cannabis needs to be removed from the Controlled Drugs and Substances 
Act placed into a regulatory framework under the auspices of 
provincial governments.

A second key will be to support and expand efforts to create 
evidence-based approaches to eliminate stigma and discrimination, and 
social and health inequities that affect people who use drugs.

Scaling up health and social services is the third recommendation. 
The purpose is to engage people with drug problems and support their 
efforts to change. A focus on reducing the harms of substance use is 
crucial. This means integrating the services for substance use into 
the larger health care system. In addition, scaling up the harm 
reduction services to include more education, safer consumption 
services, programs to distribute new supplies for injection and crack 
cocaine use and heroin assisted treatment.

The fourth element is to improve the collection of data on substance 
use and its effects across jurisdictions. With a clear understanding 
of where we are, moving forward means policies and treatments can be 
best targeted and made most effective.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom