Pubdate: Thu, 05 Mar 2015
Source: Georgia Straight, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 The Georgia Straight
Contact:  http://www.straight.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1084
Author: Travis Lupick

JUSTIN TRUDEAU TELLS UBC STUDENTS HE WANTS SUPERVISED INJECTION SITES 
ACROSS CANADA

Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau has reaffirmed his support for an
expansion of supervised injection services across Canada. At the same
event, the would-be prime minister also restated his belief that hard
drugs should not be decriminalized.

Trudeau was speaking in Vancouver at the University of British
Columbia on March 4.

A few members of accredited media outlets were in attendance but not
permitted to ask questions. That didn't prevent Trudeau from getting
pressed by reporters still enrolled at UBC (who did a better job with
their follow-up questions than most professional journalists I've seen
at any press conference in Vancouver in quite a while).

Much has been made about Trudeau's promise to decriminalize marijuana
if he's elected to lead the country. And so Sam Fenn, a reporter with
the Cited, asked for Trudeau's position on the decriminalization of
harder drugs.

Fenn briefly argued there is evidence the prohibition of narcotics
like heroin does more harm than good and suggested Canada could
decriminalize those sorts of drugs like countries such as Portugal
have.

"What do you have to say about the prohibition of heroin, crack
cocaine, crystal methamphetamine?" Fenn asked.

"I disagree with loosening any of the prohibition on harder drugs,"
Trudeau said. "I think that there is much that we can and should be
doing around harm reduction. Insite is a great model of that, and I
certainly want to see more safe injection sites opened around the
country. And I am firm on the fact marijuana needs to be controlled
and regulated and that prohibition isn't working. But I'm not in
favour of loosening restrictions on harder drugs."

Fenn quickly followed up: "Why?"

Trudeau's response: "Let's get harm reduction right first. Let's make
sure that we are doing everything that we can. I don't think that,
despite some of the examples around the world, I don't think it's the
right solution for Canada now or ever."

Fenn again pressed him for more of an answer: "Some of the experts at,
say for instance, the [B.C.] Center for Excellence [in HIV/AIDS],
would say harm reduction is the end of prohibition of those drugs."

Trudeau: "Then I'll allow them, academics, to play with definitions. I 
believe in harm reduction, but I don't believe in decriminalizing harder 
drugs."

That's more than I've been able to get out of Health Minister Rona
Ambrose in two years.
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MAP posted-by: Matt