Canadian Politics: Canada's Drug Policy A Bust - Page 2

The authors of the report point to the fact that there has been no discernable decline in illicit drug use in the past five years to emphasise the failure of programs like DARE, where police officers are sent into schools to preach against drug use, or the special Drug Courts. According to the authors of the report there has never been any scientific proof that law enforcement strategies on their own have any impact on usage numbers.

Even Fredericton Police Chief Barry MacKnight, who chairs the drug abuse committee of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, says that his organization recognizes the need for a balanced approach to dealing with the issue of illicit drug use. Yesterday he confirmed that when he said that they've always endorsed the fact that communities need to deal with the issues of addiction and treatment as much as they do the criminal element.

While the source of the report may seem strange to some, coming from an HIV/AIDS organization, the authors state that their concern is the continual increase in numbers of HIV/AIDS case being caused by sharing needles. The medical bill for treating injection caused HIV/AIDS in the city of Vancouver alone is $215 million dollars a year. If nothing is done to prevent the use of illicit drugs these costs will continue to mount all across the country.

Of course this report is based on the programming of the previous government, so why release it now before the current government has had a chance to unveil their plan for dealing with illicit drug use. The answer is that the Conservative Party has made it clear all along that they are planning on taking even a harder line on law enforcement and doing even less in the way of providing funds for prevention and treatment.

While the previous government had been talking about the possible decriminalization of marijuana, the Conservatives promised in the last election campaign to scrape that plan and increase penalties for usage and make precursor drugs harder to come by. Not once did they make any mention of treatment or prevention programs.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the forthcoming book What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and has had his work published in print and on line all over the world. The not so long-haired Canadian iconoclast writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees …

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