Pubdate: Wed, 28 May 2014
Source: Prince Albert Daily Herald (CN SN)
Copyright: 2014 Prince Albert Daily Herald
Contact:  http://www.paherald.sk.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1918
Author: Vern Faulkner
Referenced: http://www.cpha.ca/en/about/media/ips.aspx
Referenced: http://www.cpha.ca/uploads/policy/ips_2014-05-15_e.pdf

SECOND THOUGHTS ON DRUG WAR LONG OVERDUE

On Tuesday, the Canadian Public Health Association released a policy
report that says the nation needs to shift how it views drugs. Simply
put, the association said the time to treat addictions as a battle
against drugs has long past.

In a press release, Ian Culbert, the CPHA's executive director, stated
the findings of the group's investigations.

"Prohibition has engendered an environment that fuels the growth of
illegal markets, organized crime, violent injuries, and the deaths of
users, dealers, and police," he stated, while also chronicling a list
of health problems accrued from drug use - particularly illicit IV
drug use.

In calling to treat psychoactive materials as a public health matter,
the CPHA places itself with many other associations and individuals
who have called on government authorities to change the current
crime-and-punishment model.

This we know: The current war-on-drugs approach isn't working, and for
those reasons, the list of those calling for change is impressive, and
ranges from international bodies, to the London School of Economics
and beyond.

There is an old adage that anecdotes cannot be confused with data, but
at the same time, any casual reader of our Courier Weekend court news
page will surely note a consistent theme: Drugs and alcohol are
constantly cited as factors in crime and criminal activity. Alcohol is
a drug, albeit a legal one, with horrific social consequence when
misused. Other drugs present social consequences too, often driven by
addicts' hunger for cash to fuel their habits.

The argument some would make is that decriminalizing some of the
current list of prohibited materials may, to some extent, curb
drug-fuelled crime.

Certainly, the status quo has done little to curb supply: last year,
the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy released a report
citing the availability of three major drug categories (cocaine,
marijuana and opiates) had not been negatively impacted in the last 20
years.

"Organized crime's efforts to succeed in these markets has flourished,
and the criminal justice system's efforts to contain these markets has
really been quite remarkably unsuccessful," stated Dr. Evan Wood, the
Canada Research Chair in Inner City Medicine at the University of
B.C., one of the report's authors, in October of last year.

Like many, Wood stated the "war on drugs is over."

Well, it isn't over - but it seems law enforcement is losing its
battle. To put things in perspective, even the right-wing think tank
The Fraser Institute has stepped into the fray, and although it hasn't
quite declared the war on drugs a failure itself, it recently
published an academic work that stated as much, and criticized the
current federal government of Stephen Harper for mis-managing the
issue, a fairly notable almost stance for that body.

So what now? Can we have a rational discussion about what is working,
and what isn't?

Judging from the outcry from some quarters when Liberal Party Leader
Justin Trudeau suggested decriminalizing marijuana last year, it seems
such a discussion is unlikely.

At the same time, we can't ignore the mountain of evidence stating,
unequivocally, the status quo is a waste of time, and more importantly
at a time of federal and provincial cost reductions, the war on drugs
is most certainly a very costly exercise.

That makes the discussion very necessary indeed.

This editorial was written by Vern Faulkner, a former Prince Albert
Daily Herald managing editor who now holds a similar position with the
Saint Croix Courier in New Brunswick.
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MAP posted-by: Matt