Pubdate: Wed, 28 May 2014 Source: Prince Albert Daily Herald (CN SN) Copyright: 2014 Prince Albert Daily Herald Contact: http://www.paherald.sk.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1918 Author: Vern Faulkner Referenced: http://www.cpha.ca/en/about/media/ips.aspx Referenced: http://www.cpha.ca/uploads/policy/ips_2014-05-15_e.pdf SECOND THOUGHTS ON DRUG WAR LONG OVERDUE On Tuesday, the Canadian Public Health Association released a policy report that says the nation needs to shift how it views drugs. Simply put, the association said the time to treat addictions as a battle against drugs has long past. In a press release, Ian Culbert, the CPHA's executive director, stated the findings of the group's investigations. "Prohibition has engendered an environment that fuels the growth of illegal markets, organized crime, violent injuries, and the deaths of users, dealers, and police," he stated, while also chronicling a list of health problems accrued from drug use - particularly illicit IV drug use. In calling to treat psychoactive materials as a public health matter, the CPHA places itself with many other associations and individuals who have called on government authorities to change the current crime-and-punishment model. This we know: The current war-on-drugs approach isn't working, and for those reasons, the list of those calling for change is impressive, and ranges from international bodies, to the London School of Economics and beyond. There is an old adage that anecdotes cannot be confused with data, but at the same time, any casual reader of our Courier Weekend court news page will surely note a consistent theme: Drugs and alcohol are constantly cited as factors in crime and criminal activity. Alcohol is a drug, albeit a legal one, with horrific social consequence when misused. Other drugs present social consequences too, often driven by addicts' hunger for cash to fuel their habits. The argument some would make is that decriminalizing some of the current list of prohibited materials may, to some extent, curb drug-fuelled crime. Certainly, the status quo has done little to curb supply: last year, the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy released a report citing the availability of three major drug categories (cocaine, marijuana and opiates) had not been negatively impacted in the last 20 years. "Organized crime's efforts to succeed in these markets has flourished, and the criminal justice system's efforts to contain these markets has really been quite remarkably unsuccessful," stated Dr. Evan Wood, the Canada Research Chair in Inner City Medicine at the University of B.C., one of the report's authors, in October of last year. Like many, Wood stated the "war on drugs is over." Well, it isn't over - but it seems law enforcement is losing its battle. To put things in perspective, even the right-wing think tank The Fraser Institute has stepped into the fray, and although it hasn't quite declared the war on drugs a failure itself, it recently published an academic work that stated as much, and criticized the current federal government of Stephen Harper for mis-managing the issue, a fairly notable almost stance for that body. So what now? Can we have a rational discussion about what is working, and what isn't? Judging from the outcry from some quarters when Liberal Party Leader Justin Trudeau suggested decriminalizing marijuana last year, it seems such a discussion is unlikely. At the same time, we can't ignore the mountain of evidence stating, unequivocally, the status quo is a waste of time, and more importantly at a time of federal and provincial cost reductions, the war on drugs is most certainly a very costly exercise. That makes the discussion very necessary indeed. This editorial was written by Vern Faulkner, a former Prince Albert Daily Herald managing editor who now holds a similar position with the Saint Croix Courier in New Brunswick. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt