Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday December 10, 2002
Randall Palmer

The safe-site proposal draws on experiences in European countries such as the Netherlands and is the latest in a series of recommendations to relax Canada's drug laws, despite warnings from the United States that doing so could exacerbate problems at the border.

But committee chairwoman Paddy Torsney said the status quo was simply unacceptable.

"People are using drugs. Let's deal with the health problem," Torsney told reporters after submitting an interim report after 1-1/2 years of study. "They're somebody's brother or sister, and they're deserving of our care."

Separately, Justice Minister Martin Cauchon told reporters he was likely to introduce legislation to decriminalize marijuana possession early in 2003.

"If we're talking about that question of decriminalizing marijuana, we may move ahead quickly as a government," he said. "Let's say the beginning of next year."

The proposal for safe injection sites--made by the House of Commons Special Committee on the Non-Medical Use of Drugs--involves allowing addicts to bring their heroin or other illegal drugs to a room where they can inject the drugs without penalty, under the supervision of medically trained personnel.

The idea is "harm reduction": to reduce blood-transmitted infections like HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C, as well as to reduce overdose deaths. The committee also hopes to cut back on seedy drug scenes, like the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada's most notorious neighborhood, where drug use is rampant.

The right-wing Canadian Alliance, the largest opposition party in Parliament, dismissed the findings of the Liberal-dominated committee, saying they were a recipe for "harm extension."

The Alliance's Randy White said the European facilities the committee visited made no checks for the safety of drugs used, and opening so-called safe sites did not succeed in cleaning up nearby neighborhoods.

"Surrounding the facilities, I saw human carnage for blocks, as well as a substantial gathering of addicts and pushers in the areas where trafficking and using were reluctantly permitted," White said.

Police also blasted the idea of safe sites, saying they would do nothing to deal with the violent crimes committed by addicts who need to fund their habits, and would merely further encourage the drug culture.

"Our concern is that we're sliding down a slippery slope to the point where it won't be long that we'll be hearing calls for dispensing drugs in those sites as well," Canadian Police Association spokesman David Griffin told reporters.

The committee will also make recommendations on the subject of marijuana on Thursday. Torsney said public opinion was not ready for the decriminalization of all illegal drugs, but she declined to give her view on marijuana.

A Senate committee in September recommended marijuana's full legalization. Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has suggested the government decriminalize it without making it fully legal.

His remarks on Monday were the first indication he would be moving swiftly to do so.

This idea has drawn warnings from US drug czar John Walters that the United States could further tighten its border security--already toughened in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks--to prevent drugs filtering south.

Griffin said Canada, which has an estimated illegal drug market of C$14 billion a year ($9 billion), had already surpassed Mexico as a source of illegal drugs for the United States.

Griffin further criticized a committee proposal for needle exchanges in prisons, saying the open possession of needles endangered front-line officers.

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