cannabisnews.com: Canada's Drug Policy Draws U.S. Warning





Canada's Drug Policy Draws U.S. Warning
Posted by CN Staff on May 02, 2003 at 07:21:18 PT
By Frances Bula, Vancouver Sun 
Source: Vancouver Sun 
Canada and Vancouver are heading for major trouble with their drug policies, a U.S. drug office representative warned Thursday.Ottawa's plan to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana and Vancouver's move to open North America's first injection site for drug users likely will force the U.S. to tighten border controls to prevent increased drug trafficking, said David Murray, special assistant in the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
The two initiatives have caused dismay among U.S. officials fighting the war on drugs, as American media like the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and 60 Minutes have recently started to focus on the Vancouver initiative, as well as on Canada's plans for a new drug policy."This is a critical juncture for Canada," said Murray, who flew to Vancouver for a day of meetings with local police, health groups, municipal politicians, and media to talk about U.S. and Canadian drug policy.He said the decriminalization initiative "is a matter we look upon with some concern and some regret."Murray emphasized it's up to Canadians to make their own decisions, but he warned that if Canada decriminalizes marijuana, as Prime Minister Jean Chretien said publicly for the first time this week that his government will do, the existing harmony between the two countries will be ruptured."I think the loss of the mutual cooperative partnership we've had with Canadians regarding our borders, regarding the integrity of the hemisphere, regarding our commerce, regarding the implications of trade and value to ourselves, the loss of that would be something truly to be regretted," said Murray, who repeatedly referred to the "unintended consequences" the new drug policies would bring."We would have no choice but to respond. My impression is the first concern is what is coming in to our country. How do we examine, how do we understand and how do we try to prevent the flood of illicit substances that we currently cooperatively try to manage with Canadian contribution?"Clearly, there would be a concern on our part that we must respond to that development."Murray said that if Canada moves to decriminalize,more young people will use marijuana, police resources will be strapped, and the most vulnerable minority communities will be the most negatively affected by the increased accessibility.Murray was also critical of Vancouver's four-pillars drug policy, saying it was modelled after the Swiss four-pillars policy, which has its problems."I think there are far more serious difficulties with the Swiss model than has been fully acknowledged," he said. "My impression is that there will be unintended consequences and that the presumed benefits will turn out to be illusory. It is something that is less likely to be satisfying because it will not deliver on the promises on which it was sold."Health advocates have argued for years that injection sites help prevent overdose deaths and infections, keeping addicts alive so they can eventually make it to treatment. They also say the evidence from existing injection sites in Europe shows that injection sites, because they're "low threshold" and non-judgmental, attract addicts to treatment in a way that abstinence-based approaches don't.Mayor Larry Campbell, who was in Ottawa Thursday meeting with cabinet ministers and health officials to get support for Vancouver's drug strategy and its plan to open the injection site within the next three months, dismissed Murray's criticisms and said that "in the coming years, the U.S. will probably want to emulate us."But Murray said addicts just aren't capable of getting themselves into treatment and they need incentives, sometimes harsh ones, to push them there."We learned in places that had legalization and/or harm-reduction initiatives go forward, for the drug user there's a removal of the incentive to get into treatment and to change their behaviour," he said."In the absence of sanctions of law enforcement or in the absence of a sense of outreach and connection with these people that does not involve handing them acceptable means of maintaining themselves around that drug, that people do not have the motive and the capacity to make the changes that are necessary for recovery."Although Murray's talk was billed as one that would be focused on treatment research, rather than politics, many of his points echoed those made by the head of the drug office, John Walters, when he spoke to the Vancouver Board of Trade last November.Like Walters, Murray cited Baltimore and its "harm-reduction advocate mayor" as an example of the disastrous effects of a liberal approach to drugs. He said Baltimore, which introduced a needle exchange under Mayor Karl Schmoke, ended up with more drug use, more trafficking, middle-class flight from the city, and job losses that no other American city experienced. He also emphasized the dangers of marijuana, saying it is much more potent than it was 30 years ago, that it is tied into the marketing of other drugs and that it acts as the first step on the ladder to those drugs."This isn't Woodstock," he said, referring to drug use as a "contagion" that moves from young person to young person. Snipped: Complete Article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/border.htm  Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)Author: Frances Bula, Vancouver Sun Published: Friday, May 02, 2003Copyright: 2003 Vancouver Sun Contact: sunletters pacpress.southam.caWebsite: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/Related Articles & Web Site:Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmU.S. Warns Canada Against Easing Pot Laws http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16149.shtmlU.S. Says Canada Cares Too Much About Liberties http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16130.shtmlU.S. Irked by PM's Pot Decriminalization Planshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16124.shtmlU.S. Unhappy About Canadian Law on Pothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16119.shtml 
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Comment #4 posted by afterburner on May 02, 2003 at 11:19:27 PT:
BOO!
Bootlicking is not harmony. This so-called doctor does not even mention the Netherlands. B-l-a-h! The UN treaties do NOT say that Canada has to put its citizens in cages for partaking of the cannabis plant. Get the hook.Slave driver Ooh-ooh-oo-ooh. Oo-oo-ooh! Oo-oo-ooh.
Slave driver, the table is turn; (catch a fire)
Catch a fire, so you can get burn, now. (catch a fire)
Slave driver, the table is turn; (catch a fire)
Catch a fire: gonna get burn. (catch a fire) Wo, now!Ev'rytime I hear the crack of a whip,
My blood runs cold.
I remember on the slave ship,
How they brutalize the very souls.
Today they say that we are free,
Only to be chained in poverty.
Good God, I think it's illiteracy;
It's only a machine that makes money.
Slave driver, the table is turn, y'all. Ooh-ooh-oo-ooh.Slave driver, uh! The table is turn, baby, now; (catch a fire)
Catch a fire, so you can get burn, baby, now. (catch a fire)
Slave driver, the table is turn, y'all; (catch a fire)
Catch a fire: so you can get burn, now. (catch a fire)Ev'rytime I hear the crack of a whip,
My blood runs cold.
I remember on the slave ship,
How they brutalize the very soul.O God, have mercy on our souls!
Oh, slave driver, the table is turn, y'all; (catch a fire)
Catch a fire, so you can get burn. (catch a fire)
Slave driver, the table is turn, y'all; (catch a fire)
Catch a fire ... /fadeout/ -Slave driver by Bob Marley http://www.alwaysontherun.net/bob.htm#c2ego transcendence follows ego destruction, and suddenly there is no problem.
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Comment #3 posted by The GCW on May 02, 2003 at 10:47:22 PT
David Murray's mouth discharge defiles America.
Canada should consider only itself when bringing credible cannabis law reform. However if Canada does wish to consider the views of America, then it must differentiate between the views held by the Bush administration & the actual American people on the cannabis issue. Polls indicate actual American citizens like Canadians want to end the cagings...Canada may consider bringing credible cannabis law reform will benefit America also, and will help bring an end to unwarranted persecutions to those who wish to accept God given cannabis. Canada will be actually helping America with a struggling humanitarian issue. David Murray does not represent the sentiments of Americans on this issue and any Canadian reporter that polls U.S. citizens will surely verify that fact.  Canadian press should poll & report how there IS a difference between what the people want and what the Bush empire is doing.You'd think that kind of news would sell a lot of newspapers.Canada and its press owes it to innocent Americans to check weather or not David Murray supports the American people or if He is representing special interest groups against the wishes of Americans. 
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on May 02, 2003 at 09:13:59 PT
Thanks puff_tuff
I listened to it and can barely believe what he was saying. We are threatening Canada because you share a border with the U.S. Our country really must think it is something special.
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Comment #1 posted by puff_tuff on May 02, 2003 at 08:54:39 PT
David Murray Interview
Thursday, May 1, 2003 CBC Radio / As it HappensCriticize it, don't legalize it. America's drug czar urges Canada not to make a hash of its cannabis possession laws.http://cbc.ca/asithappens/real/pt1-03-05-01-aih1.ramIt's the first interview. 
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