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National drug strategy neglects value of harm reduction, critic says
6/27/08|The Ottawa Citizen| by Brendan Kennedy, The Ottawa Citizen

The federal government's national drug strategy does nothing to address "the reality of people who've got addictions and have preventable diseases" and neither does it reduce the demand for drugs, said Richard Elliott, executive director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, in a meeting with the Citizen's editorial board yesterday.

Mr. Elliott criticized the Conservatives' overall approach to drug policy, which he believes emphasizes law enforcement at the expense of harm reduction. Harm-reduction services include distribution of clean needles and other equipment for drug use, provision of condoms, counselling and other forms of treatment and education to reduce the spread of infectious diseases.

In 2004-2005, the federal government spent 73 per cent of its anti-drug budget on law enforcement, splitting the rest between prevention, treatment and harm reduction. Mr. Elliott said that represents a terrible imbalance and shows that the government has prioritized the wrong approach.

"We're throwing money down this hole of the war on drugs with not much to show for it," he said. "Let's actually put money into proven health programs."

He said last month's decision by a British Columbia Supreme Court judge to keep Vancouver's safe-injection site open despite government opposition provides one example of a larger harm-reduction debate and its place within overall drug policy.

"A judge quite refreshingly saw the tension between health and access to health services, on the one hand, and criminalizing drugs and the people who use them on the other hand," he said.

"Where these two things conflict, health has to take priority over criminalizing people."

Only a few days after the ruling, federal Health Minister Tony Clement said the government would appeal the B.C. Supreme Court decision.