Canadians should be able to use small amounts of marijuana and hard drugs too without fear of being arrested, says the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition. The coalition says the federal government’s drug policies fail to support safety and health and there is an acute need for improved support for people who use drugs.
“The bulk of our resources in Canada are spent on enforcement, both federally, provincially and at the local level,” said Connie Carter, a senior policy analyst at the coalition. She noted that between 70 and 75 per cent of spending on drug issues goes into enforcement of anti-drug laws.
“Criminal law…doesn’t work”–analyst
“We’re not suggesting at this point that we decriminalize trafficking and production,” Carter said. “We’re basically just saying look, it’s time to get the criminal law out of the business of regulating what people put in their bodies in terms of drugs. It doesn’t work, it doesn’t keep people from using drugs, it doesn’t keep drugs out of the hands of people. In fact what it does is drive drug use into the shadows where it’s harder to reach people with appropriate services.”
People are concerned about a lack of services for drug users according to a report the coalition wrote using existing studies and a survey of Canadian opinion.
“Time and time again we heard about a chronic underfunding of really vital services,” said Carter. “We also heard about long wait lists…also a lack of bridging between services.” For example some users come out of detox and have to wait to get treatment for their addictions.
Drug users decry discrimination
Discrimination against drug users was found to be a common complaint, along with concern that prevented a scaling up of support service and prevented an honest and open conversation about drugs.
Overuse of criminal law to deal with problematic drug use was cited as another big concern. “What people said to us is that problematic drug use is a health issue,” said Carter. “(they said) ‘We should be dealing with it through the health care system and so why are we criminalizing people for using drugs?’”
The current Canadian government’s approach get-tough-on-crime agenda is unhelpful according to the coalition. It has changed the law to implement mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug offences.
Instead it should acknowledge harm reduction strategies that have worked in other countries. Carter notes Portugal decriminalized the use of small amounts of drugs in 2001 and scaled up services. She says drug use did not increase but harm to drug users did decline.
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