Canada:
British
Columbia
Health
Officials
Call
for
Discussion
on
Regulation
of
Illicit
Drugs
10/21/05
In a position paper released during an international symposium on drug policy in Vancouver this week, the Health Officers Council of British Columbia qualified the war on drugs as "an abysmal failure" and called for public discussion on regulating currently illicit drugs in place of the current prohibition regime. The document, "A Public Health Approach to Drug Control in Canada", advocates a health-based alternative approach instead of one heavily reliant on law enforcement. The time is right for Canada to move beyond prohibitionist approaches, said the provincial health officers. "Current conditions are right to enter into serious public discussions regarding the creation of a regulatory system for currently illegal drugs in Canada, with better control and reduced harms to be achieved by management in a tightly controlled system," they wrote in the document. "The removal of criminal penalties for drug possession for personal use, and placement of these currently illegal substances in a tight regulatory framework, could both aid implementation of programs to assist those engaged in harmful drug use, and reduce secondary unintended drug-related harms to society that spring from a failed criminal-prohibition approach. This would move individual harmful illegal drug use from being primarily a criminal issue to being primarily a health issue." The health officers recommended a number of steps, including the reform of provincial, federal, and international drug laws; the establishment of comprehensive prevention, treatment, and harm reduction services for drug users; improved information sharing on the health and social impacts of drug use; and the development of Canada-wide public health strategies to manage the use of psychoactive substances. While suggesting that non-prohibitionist approaches to illicit drugs would be more workable, the health officers also called for tighter regulation of widely used legal substances, such as alcohol and tobacco. The document was released as part of a two-day conference, "Beyond Drug Prohibition: A Public Health Approach," sponsored by Keeping the Door Open, "a multi-stakeholder coalition comprised of individuals and organizations representing a diverse range of stakeholder groups, institutional and community-based service providers, health authorities, research centres, charitable foundations, public policy makers, drug consumers, consumer advocates, government, and business."
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