Pubdate: Wed, 10 Aug 2016
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Margret Kopala
Page: A12

INJECTION SITES WON'T CUT IT

Preventing, treating are our only hopes to stem drug abuse, says
Margret Kopala.

The deadline for the City of Ottawa's supervised injection site
consultations was Monday, but Ottawans may be forgiven for finding the
whole exercise moot. With drug abuse reaching epidemic proportions in
our cities, injection facilities, whatever their merits, are a drop in
the bucket compared to what is needed.

Even British Columbia, devoted to harm reduction protocols and, since
2003, the home of Canada's first injection site, Insite, is worried.
According to the Coroners Service of British Columbia, illicit-drug
overdose deaths have increased from 200 in 2007 to a projected 800 in
2016. The introduction of the designer drug fentanyl isn't solely to
blame. Heroin overdoses - on their own or laced with fentanyl - are a
major factor.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Vancouver, with its large drug user
presence, has one of the highest rates of property crime on the
continent. According to the latest Vancouver Police Department crime
incident statistics report, this also increased in 2016 by 24 per cent
over the same period in 2015. Adding insult to legal injury, the
addict typically takes his ill-gotten gains (women typically
prostitute themselves) and, because of an exemption from the
provisions of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act extended to
Insite by the Supreme Court in 2011, police officers stand aside as he
purchases his illegal substance from the local crime syndicate. In
turn, the syndicate uses its proceeds to buy guns and even more exotic
drugs for addicts to use in the city's supervised injection site.

Into this Clockwork Orange world, the addition of fentanyl is just the
latest twist. As the morally ambiguous TV series Breaking Bad
demonstrated, geniuses willing to cook up lethal concoctions abound.
How can the law and our expanding medical-industrial drug complex
possibly stem a tide that degrades and kills users, puts public health
and safety at risk, compromises the moral authority of our laws and
turns our inner cities into micro-narco states?

Well, at this rate they can't, and we can be sure that once marijuana
is legalized, it will get worse.

Marijuana is a complex substance comprising over 100 chemicals and
many cannabinoids. Some components will certainly have pharmaceutical
benefits but, for the remainder, the growing list of harms includes
not only the potential to trigger psychosis in genetically susceptible
youths but also to disrupt various functions of the brain in all users.

It's long past time for one-off initiatives such as drug injection
sites. The only hope for mitigating the impending tidal wave of drug
abuse is to establish comprehensive prevention and treatment programs.
In the same way Vancouver was able to experiment with a drug injection
site, the City of Ottawa should seek dispensation to implement the
best-practice models available in Europe. In zero-tolerance Sweden,
where the lowest rates of use in the western world prevail, prevention
is part of the early school curriculum. In Portugal's health-centred
approach to addiction, drug use is also prohibited while possession of
small amounts results in fines and/or referrals for appropriate
treatment. In the United Kingdom, education has reduced marijuana use.

 From the unrestricted use of hashish in 15th-century Islamic societies
to the opium dens of China that disabled one-quarter of the
population, we know that if you build it, they will come. Legalization
or facilitation of any psychoactive substance means more use, more
addiction and more crime. If we will not prosecute a war against drugs
that, like the war against death and disease, cannot be won but at
least do some good, let us as a society at least preserve the moral
and legal coherence of our laws and the integrity of our medical and
pharmaceutical communities. For the community of Ottawa, a
once-in-a-generation opportunity is available. We must not fail to
seize it.
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MAP posted-by: Matt