Pubdate: Thu, 04 Oct 2007
Source: Windsor Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2007 The Windsor Star
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/windsor/windsorstar/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/501
Author: CanWest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

TORY DRUG PLAN PANNED BEFORE ANNOUNCEMENT

OTTAWA -- A national anti-drug strategy that Prime Minister Stephen 
Harper is set to launch in Winnipeg today has been panned in advance 
by opposition party critics as too ideological.

The government is embracing a U.S.-style "war on drugs" that 
approaches drug abuse as more of a criminal matter than a health 
issue, Liberal and New Democratic Party critics said Wednesday.

Vancouver Liberal MP Keith Martin, a surgeon, and New Democratic 
Party MP Libby Davies, her party's drug policy critic, used similar 
terms in separate interviews about the $64-million plan.

Martin said that marijuana and hard drugs like cocaine should not be 
equated in "an ideological war on drugs." Davies said Harper is 
"caught in an ideological time warp."

The plan is expected to include a major "no safe drugs" education 
campaign targeted at youth and parents and aimed in part at clearing 
up what Health Minister Tony Clement has said is "confusion" about 
the safety and legality of marijuana.

It is neither safe nor legal, he has emphasized, blaming confusion on 
a decade of debate about decriminalizing marijuana -- a move 
supported by Liberals and NDP but opposed by the Harper government.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman