Pubdate: Fri, 03 Jun 2011
Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB)
Copyright: 2011 Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.edmontonsun.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135
Author: Mindelle Jacobs
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/Global+Commission+on+Drug+Policy

FEDERAL TORIES ON THE WRONG SIDE OF RATIONAL DRUG POLICY

The timing couldn't be more ironic.

The Harper Tories have just won a majority with plans to move full 
steam ahead with legislation that will mean tougher sentences for 
drug crimes, including the possession of a few pot plants.

Meanwhile, an international body, the Global Commission on Drug 
Policy, just released a report urging governments to abandon their 
futile, prohibitionist attitudes and have the courage to 
decriminalize and regulate drugs, especially pot.

"The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences 
for individuals and societies around the world," the commission declared.

Vast expenditures on criminalization and repressive measures have 
failed to curtail supply or consumption, the group noted. "Apparent 
victories in eliminating one source or trafficking organization are 
negated almost instantly by the emergence of other sources and traffickers."

Estimated annual drug consumption since 1998 has increased 
dramatically, fueling a huge criminal blackmarket while doing nothing 
to help addicts.

The commission report recommends replacing drug policies "driven by 
ideology and political convenience" with fiscally responsible 
strategies grounded in science, health and human rights.

International drug conventions should be revised to accommodate 
"robust experimentation" with harm reduction, decriminalization and 
legal regulatory practices, it said.

As expected, the report was music to the ears of delegates at 
Thursday's Alberta Harm Reduction Conference in Edmonton.

"I think the report . is very sensible and sound," commented Richard 
Elliott, executive director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. 
"It says very clearly what I think everybody already knows if they're 
being honest - and that is the global war on drugs has failed."

Mandatory minimum sentences for drug use fly in the face of public 
health evidence and fiscal reality, he said, noting that the billions 
of dollars spent prosecuting addicts worsen health problems and do 
nothing to end drug use.

"Ultimately, the war on drugs is a war on drug users. It's a war on 
people," said Elliott, who spoke at the conference about Insite, 
Vancouver's supervised drug injection site - the only one in North 
America with a legal exemption from drug laws.

(The Tories don't want to extend the exemption and the Supreme Court 
of Canada recently heard arguments for and against continuing the facility.)

Zealous

"We hope the Supreme Court of Canada . will agree that the criminal 
law has to bend here," said Elliott. "We can't prosecute the war on 
drugs so vigorously and so zealously that we actually keep people 
away from life-saving health services."

The Global Commission on Drug Policy's blunt recommendations were 
also welcomed by Marliss Taylor, head of Edmonton's Streetworks 
needle-exchange and health outreach program, and Don McPherson, of 
the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition.

In fact, you'd have been hard-pressed to find anyone at the harm 
reduction conference who wasn't cheering on the commission.

"It affirms our sense that there's a growing consensus that we need 
to take a different path," said McPherson. "I've always maintained 
that this is not a left-wing or right-wing issue," he added.

"I know fiscal conservatives who are very supportive of the Harper 
government but they really don't like his tack on crime and drug policy."

The battle between political ideology and scientific evidence goes on.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom