What’s Government Smoking?
Please have a look at the Letter to the Editor below that was published in the Prince George Citizen today and the Edmonton Sun yesterday. Thank you.
-Keith
What’s Government Smoking?
It has become clear that the war-on-drugs approach has failed to undercut the violence and substance abuse tied to the illegal drug trade that plagues our cities.
While the World Health Organization (WHO) has stated its support for harm-reduction strategies, the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs is currently meeting in Vienna to discuss adopting the approach and the U.S. appoints a prevention-focused national drug policy chair, the Canadian government is looking the other way and is refusing to listen to the science on the issue of drug policy and harm-reduction strategies.
The government has kept programs like Vancouver’s INSite and drug treatment courts across the country on a shoestring, constantly threatening to cut their funding, which would kill the programs. Additionally, last summer, former Health Minister Tony Clement embarrassed himself at an international WHO meeting where he spoke out against WHO support for the strategy, calling harm reduction “a sham.”
If we are serious about addressing gang violence and the illegal drug trade here in Canada, we must make the connection between violence, the illegal drug trade and the demand for these illicit substances in our cities. The answer is to address substance abuse as a medical problem and cut the link between users and organized crime through harm reduction and drug substitution programs.
The war on drugs has not reduced crime, harm or drug use. Canada should be a leader at the international meeting in Vienna and come out clearly in support of harm-reduction initiatives that work.
– Keith Martin,
MP, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca,
Ottawa
(Dr. Keith Martin is a physician who worked in detox, and alcohol and drug rehabilitation centres for 14 years.)
What’s Government Smoking?
One Response to “What’s Government Smoking?”
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April 2nd, 2009 at 9:33 am
Though the basic premise (i.e., that all drug abuse should be viewed as a health — not criminal — issue) is laudable, it’s way too general to be of any use as a guide to reforming Canada’s drug control policy. How would you translate such a general principle into practice when it comes to the specific prohibitions (illegel production, trafficking, possession for the purpose of trafficking, importing, possession, double doctoring, etc.) found in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act?