Pubdate: Wed, 01 Oct 2014
Source: Beacon Herald, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2014 Osprey Media Group Inc.
Contact: http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/letters
Website: http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1459
Author: Giuseppe Valiante
Cited: Canadian Drug Policy Coalition: http://drugpolicy.ca/
Page: 7

DRUG LAWS KILLING USERS: GROUPS

OTTAWA - Canada's drug policy is a failure and it is killing people in
communities across the country, drug-reform activists said Tuesday in
Ottawa.

Drug activists, health lobbyists and other leaders in the field,
including the Liberal Party's health critic, gathered on Parliament
Hill for a press conference to advocate for a fairer drug policy than
the current one they say unfairly criminalizes drugs users and leads
to the mistreatment of addiction.

The speakers on Tuesday all wanted Canada's drug policies reformed,
but the divergence in their messages reflected the difficulties in
rallying public opinion in favour of changing the way addicts are
treated and how drugs are distributed in Canada.

Donna May, founder of an addiction-awareness group called Jack's
Voice, said heroin should be legalized so users have access to more
pure and safer strains of the drug.

Liberal health critic Hedy Fry wouldn't weigh in on legalizing heroin.
She said Canadians' attitudes towards addiction need to change before
politicians discuss legalizing hard drugs.

The drug-reform activists said they will meet with politicians in
Ottawa to try and change perceptions around addiction and drug use.

Fry said politicians, doctors and citizens often see addiction as
criminal behaviour instead of as a disease.

Addicts are stigmatized and, as a consequence, are often jailed as
opposed to treated, she said.

Guy Pierre Levesque, who runs a support group for people who take
opiates, as well as Don MacPherson, head of the Canadian Drug Policy
Coalition, said Tuesday the government needs to make the overdose
drug, Naloxone, more available.

Naloxone, used to treat a drug overdose and currently available by
prescription only, should be carried around by drug users in case of
accidental overdose, and the drug should be available in all treatment
centres, they said.
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