Pubdate: Mon, 01 May 2006 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=6056b4c5-138d-4309-b53f-085ebc6af198 Copyright: 2006 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Ian Mulgrew Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing) RADICAL THOUGHT TAKES HOLD IN THE WAR AGAINST DRUGS Drug Prohibition And Strict Law Enforcement Isn't The Answer, MD Says Dr. Alex Wodak says that a quarter-century ago, he was vilified and considered more of a fruitcake than someone to be taken serious. The spread of HIV/AIDS, the rise in overdose deaths from injection drug use and the dawning realization that we need a new approach to drug policy has changed that. As he says, people everywhere can see the American-led war on drugs is an abysmal failure. "It's still a controversial subject," Wodak said Sunday in an interview, "but I think more and more people are prepared to say publicly that what we've been doing hasn't worked, it's never going to work and we need to change our whole approach. Tinkering around the edges isn't going to make a difference." The Australian now is among the most recognized of a global tribe committed to the gospel of harm reduction. He was among the earliest of converts -- a founder of the International Harm Reduction Association. In addition to his social advocacy work, he is director of Sydney's St. Vincent's Hospital's 50-member Alcohol and Drug Service, treating patients suffering from the effects of their dependencies. Most recently, he has been publishing on methamphetamine dependency and the apparently rising tide of stimulant abuse around the globe. As well, he is shaping policies in developing countries with broad consultancy work on how to manage HIV and the spread of blood-borne viral infections among injecting drug users. Wodak advocates a completely opposite approach to the strategy articulated by Prime Minster Stephen Harper and unsurprisingly lauded by former Tory MP Randy White, now the mouthpiece for the Drug Prevention Network of Canada. Mandatory minimum prison sentences and large fines for marijuana-growing operations, withdrawal of support for injection sites, a crackdown on drug crime and no marijuana decriminalization legislation -- White called the government's intended program "a breath of fresh air." Wodak couldn't disagree more. "It is clear we cannot enforce our way out of this problem," he said. "That is what is tried around the world, at great financial and human cost, and we can see it doesn't work. We need to change from a reliance on drug law enforcement to implementing sound public policy based on health and social measures." I agree wholeheartedly. It is time to move the debate from why -- to how -- we should legally regulate the drug trade. Most specialists around the world, including the Health Officers Council of B.C., acknowledge criminalization has failed to address the health, social and public safety fallout from illegal drug use and it's time to embrace a health-based approach. Countries such as the Netherlands and Switzerland have seen significant reductions in drug-related crime by ensuring drug users who do not respond to more conventional treatments are provided clean heroin under supervision. "The message is we have to change from having a preoccupation with drug law enforcement as the solution to the drug problem and realize it is primarily a health and social issue, although there is always a need to back that up with law enforcement," Wodak said. "It's an issue globally and it has been getting worse for decades and must be turned around." Besides contributing to crime, disorder and poor health for drug users, he emphasized: "Drug prohibition contributes to more dangerous drugs -- such as crystal meth -- constantly emerging. And they replace less dangerous drugs." Wodak is in town and a key participant at the 17th International Harm Reduction Conference. The meeting, he said, is a chance to educate a huge number of health professionals -- 1,300 from 60 countries will be here. Wodak explained that he came to his position from mainstream medicine and never thought radical drug policy change was either desirable or possible given the political climate. "But we had a huge epidemic of HIV among gay men in Sydney and we could see the very serious possibility of HIV going from gay men to the intravenous drug users to the general population. Once it got into the general population, we feared we'd never get rid of it. That's how I got interested in the issue." That led him to start the first (initially illegal) needle syringe program in Australia. "If we didn't do it," he said, "we would have been engulfed by AIDS. It was so obvious and yet I met such resistance and I asked myself why. I realized I was battling an entrenched policy of drug prohibition established and maintained predominantly by the United States because of their own insecurities about drugs and drug use." He thinks marijuana should be legalized, taxed and health warnings imprinted on packages in much the same way that alcohol and tobacco are regulated and marketed. That might even help stem the trend that worries him -- the rise of amphetamine use around the globe that he blames on the continued criminal drug prohibition. "The hope is the people who attend this conference will go back to their countries with a better knowledge about what works and what doesn't work," Wodak said. "We need to move from measures that are very costly, very ineffective and counter-productive, to policies and interventions that are effective, inexpensive and don't have terrible side-effects like corrupting the police and the judiciary and producing narco-states. "We know what works, we just don't know how to convince the policy-makers to do it. We need to make health and social policies a higher priority than law enforcement."