HARPER'S WAR WILL HAVE NO EXIT STRATEGY

Conservative leader Stephen Harper all but promised on the weekend as
he toured the Lower Mainland to cut funding to Vancouver's safe
injection site experiment and repudiate the harm-reduction drug
policy this city has pioneered for the last half decade.

Harper wants mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences, to
eliminate conditional sentences such as house arrest, to bring in
tougher fines for traffickers and producers, to scrap Liberal plans
to decriminalize marijuana and to introduce a national drug strategy
aimed at youth.

He would impose sentences of at least two years for trafficking
heroin, cocaine, crystal meth, marijuana or hashish. And he'd up the
penalties for repeat offences.

It was a performance that would have made proud Ronald Reagan, the
late Republican president and father of the war on drugs, and his
ideological heir, George W. Bush.

Trouble is, 20 years after the U.S. began jailing its own citizens at
a rate that outstripped even the most dictatorial countries, such an
approach to drug use runs counter to the best thinking, no matter
which side of the political spectrum you are on.

Drug use is not a left-or-right issue, it is a problem that
transcends party lines.

Non-Partisan Association veteran and former Vancouver mayor Philip
Owen, for instance, has just returned from Afghanistan
enthusiastically proselytizing for an end to the criminal prohibition
of marijuana and advocating a radical change in our approach -- period.

"It only makes sense," he told me.

The B.C. Medical Officers of Health have just issued a report calling
for the legalization of marijuana and a wholesale change to how we
approach addiction and drug issues.

The United Kingdom reclassified marijuana a year ago and recently the
government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs gave the move
glowing reviews.

Despite concerns that reducing criminal penalties would increase use,
the number of people using cannabis has fallen by more than one per cent.

The Dutch, who began to tolerate possession of small amounts of
marijuana, and pot cafes, in the mid-1970s, have had a similar
experience -- their usage rates are below that of North America and
they are now debating legalizing production. Meanwhile, more police
resources were re-targeted to fight hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine.

Even in the U.S., lawyers, judges, policy wonks, police officers and
others were debating last week in Seattle an "exit strategy" on the
war on drugs because this spare-the-rod-spoil-the-child approach isn't working.

Denver voters last month endorsed an initiative saying adults 21
years or older could possess up to one ounce of pot.

Citizens in other U.S. cities, particularly in California, have
supported the same kind of voter-driven initiatives.

Downtown Oakland, for example, has been resuscitated by the arrival
of medical cannabis dispensaries and private pot clubs.

States that ramped up their penalties for drug abuse have discovered
the cost of prisons is draining their treasuries to such an extent
they've had to embrace early release programs and other measures such
as drug and community courts to keep offenders out of jail.

Time magazine this week reported that new research on the medical use
of marijuana is one of the most significant medical developments of 2005:

"Research into the analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of
cannabis continued to bolster the case for the medicinal use of
marijuana, making the 'patient pot laws' that have passed in 11
states seem less like a social movement than a legitimate medical
trend. One trial -- the first controlled study of its kind -- showed
that a medicine containing cannabis extracts called Sativex [which is
already available in Canada] not only lessened the pain of rheumatoid
arthritis but actually suppressed the disease. An earlier study
published in the Journal of Neuroscience showed that synthetic
cannabinoids, the chemicals in marijuana, can reduce inflammation in
the brain and may protect it from the cognitive decline associated
with Alzheimer's disease."

Even in the country that spawned the war on drugs and the just-say-no
ideology, the truth is becoming more and more evident -- the war is being lost.

The current criminal prohibition against marijuana has led to a
situation in which our neighbourhoods are riddled with illegal and in
some cases dangerous grow operations. Billions of dollars are flowing
into the pockets of organized crime.

Our children are subjected to inadequate and often inaccurate drug
education. Thousands of Canadians are having their lives ruined by
the stigma of a record. The flouting of the law and the lack of
substance in the arguments for maintaining the law are corroding many
Canadians' faith in the police and legal system. And pot remains
freely available.

Every smart person or group who has looked at this issue -- from the
1970s' LeDain Royal Commission to the more recent Senate
subcommittee, from the B.C. Court of Appeal to the B.C. Medical
Officers of Health, from ex-mayor-new-Liberal Senator Larry Campbell
to Fraser Institute economist Stephen Easton, all have concluded
tougher penalties and longer jail terms do not and will not work.

In a recent poll, 57 per cent of Canadians said they wanted marijuana
users left alone.

Harper, in my opinion, should rethink his stance -- Canadians do not
want to go backward into the future.