Pubdate: Sat, 10 May 2014
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2014 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.montrealgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Douglas Quan
Page: A15
Referenced: Ending the Drug Wars (Report of the LSE Expert Group on 
the Economics of Drug Policy): http://mapinc.org/url/t4FrTmuU

TORIES URGED TO HEED REPORT ON FAILURE OF WAR ON DRUGS

The Conservative government seriously needs to pay attention to a new 
London School of Economics report that concludes the global war on 
drugs has failed, drug policy experts said Friday.

The 82-page report, titled Ending the Drug Wars and signed by five 
Nobel Prize economists, urges countries to redirect massive resources 
away from law enforcement-centred policies toward "public 
health-based policies of harm reduction and treatment."

Under strict monitoring, states should also be encouraged to 
"experiment" with alternative drug policies - such as the recent 
legalization and regulation of marijuana in Colorado and Washington 
state - to determine which ones work best, the report said.

"Continuing to spend vast resources on punitive enforcement-led 
policies, generally at the expense of proven public-health policies, 
can no longer be justified," the authors state.

Simon Fraser University professor Benedikt Fischer, who holds a 
research chair in applied public health with the Canadian Institutes 
of Health Research, said Friday the latest report adds to a growing 
list of seminal studies that have shown the immense "collateral 
damage" of current prohibition- and policing-centred policies.

The consequences, he said, include teenagers being forced into the 
underground black market to buy drugs, drug-related overdose 
fatalities, the spread of HIV infection because of unhealthy 
conditions, people burdened with criminal records for simple 
marijuana possession and large amounts of money "wasted" on futile 
drug-enforcement operations.

Yet, Fischer said, the Conservative government has adopted a "more of 
the same" attitude, referring to the government's adoption of 
mandatory minimum sentences and other tough-on-crime policies.

"They should be reacting (to this report) by categorically and 
un-ideologically reviewing and accepting that this approach has 
failed and to consider sensible alternatives," he said. "I'm not 
talking about policy tinkering to try to touch up what we're doing, 
but to fundamentally step away from this pretence that we can 
criminalize and police drug-use behaviour."

Paloma Aguilar, press secretary for Justice Minister Peter MacKay, 
said in an email Friday that the production and trafficking of 
illicit drugs is the most significant source of money for gangs and 
organized crime.

"That is why we are combating the source of the illicit drug trade by 
targeting drug traffickers and those who import drugs into Canada," 
she said. "Furthermore, our approach allows for the use of drug 
treatment courts to ensure that non-violent offenders can have access 
to the treatment they need."

Aguilar said the government has "no intention" of legalizing 
marijuana. Globally, treatment for drug dependence and harm reduction 
services remain severely underfunded or unavailable, despite evidence 
that they help to save lives and prevent the spread of disease, the report said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom