Pubdate: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 Source: Regina Leader-Post (CN SN) Copyright: 2007 The Leader-Post Ltd. Contact: http://www.canada.com/regina/leaderpost/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/361 Author: Heather Polischuk Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) FEDERAL STRATEGY IGNORES ALCOHOL While welcoming news of the federal government's proposed anti-drug strategy, some Saskatchewan officials say it doesn't go far enough to deal with one of the biggest and most troublesome addictions out there: Alcohol. "I guess one of the weaknesses I think in the whole strategy is that it doesn't address alcohol," Healthy Living Services Minister Graham Addley said. "All of the experts know that while there's a certain amount of fear out there with the illicit drugs, the drug that causes the most harm in society is alcohol. So it would be nice if some resources could be allocated to addressing the addiction that individuals in society have towards alcohol." Moose Jaw Police Service Chief Terry Coleman -- who's also president of the Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police -- agreed that while illicit drugs do pose a problem, alcohol and other non-illicit drugs should also be taken into account. "The various drug strategies that are in place in Saskatchewan are very, very cognizant of what you might call the legal drugs that we encounter and how they're abused, around alcohol and prescription drugs ..." he said. "Governments, they tend to deal with I suppose the higher-profile drugs, the cocaine, the crack and the heroin. That's not to say they haven't spent time, money and energy dealing with things like impaired driving and alcohol abuse. But (illicit drugs are) higher profile." Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently announced details of the federal government's new anti-drug strategy that is intended to crack down on those who produce and deal in drugs, as well as help addicts and prevent people from becoming addicted in the first place. The $63.8-million plan, to be introduced this fall, will be divvied up among three areas: $10 million for prevention, $32 million for treatment, and $22 million for enforcement. While Coleman and Addley agreed the strategy is a step in the right direction, they said there is plenty more work that needs to be done in order to effectively deal with drug and alcohol addictions issues. "It sounds like a lot of money, but when you start dividing that up across the country, it doesn't go very far," Coleman said. "At the end of the day will it solve the problem? No, it won't. I think it's a good move, and as the spokesperson for the police, we welcome it and we welcome that it's not just enforcement, it's on the prevention and the education side as well ... "If we could deal with issues of substance abuse and all its manifestations, there would be a lot less for police to deal with. In fact, police would have very little to deal with because if you track many of the calls for service we get, many of the offences we investigate, you can track them back directly or indirectly to abuse of some type of substance." Addley said that should Saskatchewan get its share of the federal funds -- an estimated $2 million -- it would still not come close to the $18.5 million the provincial government has invested so far in drug strategies, like the three-year Project Hope. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman