Pubdate: Thu, 28 Jul 2016
Source: Metro (Vancouver, CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Metro Canada
Contact:  http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3775
Author: David P. Ball
Page: 7

TIME FOR 'ADULT' TALK ON DRUGS

The province's health minister didn't shy away Wednesday from Metro's
question about legalizing harder illicit drugs.

That was one proposal that would undercut the profit motive of drug
dealers manufacturing and lacing other drugs with deadly fentanyl,
said Leslie McBain, the mother of an overdose victim.

Asked about McBain's call to "end the war on drugs," B.C. Health
Minister Terry Lake emphasized that the regulation of controlled
substances falls to the federal government.

"I don't want to overstep the bounds here," he told Metro. "But we are
having an adult conversation in Canada about drugs - particularly
around marijuana and the legalization of marijuana.

"Some people believe it will substitute for more harmful drugs like
opioids. In Canada this conversation is evolving. It won't happen
overnight, we don't really have the jurisdiction to take action that
way, but as Canadians the conversation is changing around our
attitudes towards the consumption of illicit substances."

One important attitude shift, he added, is that the medical community
and evidence is unanimous that drug addiction is a disease, not a
personal choice or failing. "It is a contagion - not an infection but
a social contagion - and we have to address it," he explained,
responding to citizens outraged over his earlier comments comparing
overdoses to an Ebola outbreak. "It's killing our citizens.

"We should be doing something about that just like if they were
mailing anthrax through the mail or Ebola or SARS coming through our
airports... This is a health issue, not a crime issue."
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MAP posted-by: Matt