Harper and harm reduction

There’s a key drug strategy called harm reduction. It’s a policy that uses safe injection sites and progressive strategies rather than outright prohibitions and jail-time to get people off of drugs.

With that intro, I’m going to repost a letter here from the Canadian Harm Reduction Network regarding Stephen Harper’s policies in drug enforcement.

I stole this from Ravings of a Mad Sceptic, who claims harm reduction is a proven science – although I’m not sure as I couldn’t find much strong literature in a brief google search, besides some testaments to it’s weakness as a strategy with tobacco. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t dismiss it as quickly as the Harper Tories have.

With that:

Greetings:

Many of you have, over the years, received e-mails from the Canadian Harm Reduction Network about events in your communities. Unfortunately we have been having serious website /mailing problems over the past month or so which we are really trying hard to correct. We will be up and running again in the near future, perhaps before you receive this e-mail.

But I cannot wait, and I am sending you this communication under my own name and from my personal e-mail address.

What I am writing about is our upcoming election.

As interesting and colourful as the America election is, there are very important issues at stake in Canada right now, and it is imperative to consider options and vote thoughtfully.

The Canadian Harm Reduction Network is, of course, outraged that Prime Minister Harper has removed harm reduction from Canada’s drug strategy – in spite of the fact that harm reduction has increasingly become the option of choice around the world … because it works.

By doing this, the Harper Conservatives have shown that they are embracing the same failed approach to the problems of drugs and drug distribution as that taken by the Americans. This approach has helped raise the incarceration rate in the USA to the highest in the world, cost billions, wasted lives, destroyed families and communities, and helped spawn an enormous “prison-industrial complex”. And yet, drug use and drug-relate crime in the USA have not diminished.

Like alcohol prohibition in the ’30s, the American “War on Drugs” has also been the catalyst for a huge increase in crime and corruption; this time, however, it is occurring internationally.

All necessary steps must be taken to ensure that Harper and his buddies do not foist the American approach on Canada, in the name of law and order. The consequences would be dire.

For a useful take on Harper on drugs, please see this YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYLV4ya8Dao)

I have strong concerns about many other Harper choices:
… their anti-crime proposals, which ape those in the USA, where they haven’t worked
… their disdain for solid measures to address environmental concerns, including but not limited to dealing effectively with global warming, following George W. Bush’s lead
… their no-worry/no-plan approach to the economic tumble which has taken place in the USA – and which knows no borders
… their contempt for traditional Canadian communitarian values
… their lack of clarity about our role in Afghanistan
… their scorn for the arts and for artists

These are just some of the issues with which I am preoccupied. And yes, I acknowledge a bias. It is a bias toward ensuring the health and well-being of Canada as a home and nation, and that its stability, humanity, commitment to peace, justice and equity, and sense of community within our borders and respected position in the world community are maintained and reinforced. These are things which I see being undermined by the Harper government.

Regardless where you stand politically, whether you agree with these concerns or not, I urge you to give consideration to the large issues in this election, and to vote. More than that, I urge you to vote thoughtfully. Do this for the sake of Canada.

Walter Cavalieri
MSc, MSW, RSW
Director
The Canadian Harm Reduction Network