Drugs
shouldn't be legal
By David Kilgour
Published in the Ottawa Citizen, August
25, 1998
The central
point in both of Dan Gardner’s recent
pieces from the drug conference in Barbados
is that there is a ready solution at hand
for the human havoc wreaked by heroin, cocaine
and other drugs: legalization.
Gardner was
critical of my speech at the Drugs, Criminal
Justice and Social Policy International
Conference because I did not endorse blanket
legalization.
He owes it
to readers to explain how he wants to bring
this about. Would hard and soft drugs be
sold, like alcohol and tobacco, in private
or government retail outlets? Who would
qualify as suppliers and how? Would governments
attempt to grow their own poppies and coca
leaves in green houses? In Gardner’s
view, would legalizing all drugs result
in an increased addiction among Canadians
by a factor of two, ten or a thousand? Why
has no other nation on earth gone this far?
In fact attempts
to legalize drugs in other countries have
proven disastrous. In Spain, in the mid-’80s,
drug laws were softened, only to be strengthened
in full force when Spain experienced a sharp
rise in drug abuse and became a major trans-shipment
destination. When Switzerland legalized
drugs in 1987 there was a 30 per cent increase
in crime in major cities. Legalization is
definitely not the answer.
It is already
legal to use heroin in Canada if it is prescribed
by a physician for medical purposes. What
Gardner calls for is quite different: he
wants legislators to legalize everything.
He even asserts that the criminal prohibition
of drugs is the real problem.
The Government
of Canada believes the most effective approach
to the drug scourge is a balance between
demand reduction through education and reducing
supply through a number of law enforcement
initiatives. I understand that in terms
of resources it’s currently about 70
per cent on the demand reduction side and
30 per cent on the supply side, although
it’s difficult to be very precise on
the figures.
My address
at the conference in Barbados attempted
to explain our international and domestic
policy on illicit drugs, bearing in mind
that there is a growing problem of cocaine
moving through the Caribbean from South
America to North America and Europe. We
strongly support, for example, the Barbados
regional plan of action through the Inter-American
Drug Control Commission (CICAD) and the
United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP).
Our long
standing bilateral assistance to Caribbean
countries through programs of the RCMP,
National Defence, Canada Customs and other
agencies will continue. Jean Fournier, the
Deputy Solicitor General, chairs a working
group of CICAD. Leaders at the Santiago
Summit also endorsed Prime Minister Chrétien’s
initiative to create a Foreign Ministers’
Dialogue Group to discuss in a multilateral
way the broader impact of illicit drugs
throughout the hemisphere.
At home,
the challenge continues to be to reduce
the consequences of drugs on individuals,
families and communities, partly by concentrating
on traffickers and where possible confiscating
their profits and property used in their
crimes. Thirteen integrated proceeds of
crime police units are already operating
across Canada; anti-gang legislation enacted
last year provided new authority for prosecutors,
police and courts to deal with criminal
organizations. A consultation paper on proposed
anti-money laundering measures has been
published by the Solicitor General. The
government has also made a commitment to
mandatory suspicious transactions reporting
and cross-border currency controls.
The final
third of my remarks dealt with some programs
that are making a real difference across
Canada. The best of them usually involve
communities, families, schools and local
organizations. One is the Ambassador Program,
which is delivered by a coalition of eight
service agencies under the leadership of
Frontier College. It seeks to win street
youths back onto an educational path, gives
them practical experience in the workplace,
and offers them an opportunity to put a
troubled life experience to work for the
betterment of others.
In Montreal,
police launched a pilot project several
years ago to assist a neighbourhood overcome
by drug related crime. It used a get-tough
approach with drug pushers, but offered
treatment instead of charges to those found
in simple possession. The experiment, which
dealt with both supply and demand, was so
successful that it was renewed and extended
to other neighbourhoods. Many countries
might benefit from an Anti-Drug-Programs-That-Work
data bank.
In short,
I wish it were possible to see the illicit
drug problem in as simple terms as does
Gardner. Unfortunately, it isn’t.
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