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Lewis Rejects War On Drugs
Fort Francis Times | date

Employing a U.S.-style “war on drugs” will drive up the prison population and HIV infection rates without curbing drug abuse, UN special envoy Stephen Lewis has warned.

Canada instead should concentrate on the harm-reduction approach exemplified by Vancouver’s safe injection site, said Lewis, scholar-in-residence at McMaster University’s Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition.

“There is a tremendous tension between criminalizing the lives of drug users and seeing it as a question of public health,” he said in an interview. “I feel that the entire harm-reduction emphasis is a matter of public health.

“There is a tendency now, of course, to try to harmonize with U.S. policy where the war on drugs has resulted in mandatory minimum sentencing and that has proven to be unsuccessful,” he added.

“It has increased the prison populations greatly, but it certainly hasn’t resulted in any objective end to the drug trade or the rehabilitation of people . . . or indeed any improvement in society generally, so I hope Canada won’t follow that road.”

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