Stephen Harper jumped on his high horse yesterday slamming Liberal leader Justin Trudeau鈥檚 promise to legalize marijuana.
In jurisdictions where marijuana is legal, Harper said, it becomes 鈥渕ore readily available to children, more people become addicted,鈥� and there is a decline in health outcomes.
鈥淲e just think that鈥檚 the wrong direction for society and I don鈥檛 think that鈥檚 the way most Canadians want to deal with this particular problem.鈥�
This would be a very reasonable position if any of it were remotely true.
While marijuana can be addictive studies have shown only nine per cent of regular users become dependant.
Furthermore, except for some internal poll the Conservatives themselves may or may not have conducted and contrary to their constant repetition of the incorrect notion 鈥渕ost Canadians鈥� agree with them, polls overwhelmingly show most Canadians, around 66 per cent, favour either legalization or decriminalization.
Most importantly, though, the evidence simply does not mesh with Harper鈥檚 tough-on-pot world view.
The country with the most liberal drug laws in the world is Portugal. In 2001, that nation legalized possession of small amounts of drugs and not just weed, but cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine too.
Eight years later, the Cato Institute published a study that completely crushes Harper鈥檚 contentions.
Time magazine summarized the report鈥檚 findings
鈥淐ompared to the European Union and the U.S., Portugal鈥檚 drug use numbers are impressive. Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10 per cent. The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8 per cent. Proportionally, more Americans have used cocaine than Portuguese have used marijuana.
鈥淭he Cato paper reports that between 2001 and 2006 in Portugal, rates of lifetime use of any illegal drug among seventh through ninth graders fell from 14.1 per cent to 10.6 per cent; drug use in older teens also declined. Lifetime heroin use among 16-to-18-year-olds fell from 2.5 per cent to 1.8 per cent (although there was a slight increase in marijuana use in that age group). New HIV infections in drug users fell by 17 per cent between 1999 and 2003, and deaths related to heroin and similar drugs were cut by more than half. In addition, the number of people on methadone and buprenorphine treatment for drug addiction rose to 14,877 from 6,040, after decriminalization, and money saved on enforcement allowed for increased funding of drug-free treatment as well.鈥�
Glenn Greenwald, the attorney and author who conducted the research was unequivocal in his assessment.
鈥淛udging by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other western country does.鈥�
Portugal proves that, if done correctly, legalization is the proper way to deal with drug use.
Yesterday Harper was claiming it is the other parties who are out of touch with Canadians. Not true.
I have been saying for years that drug use is a health issue not a justice聽 issue.
Drug addiction is never going to go away, but it can be mitigated. The foundation of good drug policy is reducing the harm. Legalization does just that.
