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Patients will suffer under war on drugs political campaign
By Hempology | October 8, 2007
Montreal Gazette, QU
06 Oct 2007
DRUG STRATEGY WORRIES CRITICS
CanWest News Service – The federal government’s new anti-drug strategy is not winning many friends in Quebec, which arguably has the most liberal attitude to recreational drug use in the country.
The plan, announced Thursday, commits $64 million, two-thirds of which will be spent on treatment and prevention programs, the rest on beefing up drug law enforcement.
Raymond Berger worries that a crackdown on drugs will mean problems for Montreal’s Compassion Club, where he buys marijuana each week to help him deal with the effects of his chemotherapy and AIDS treatments. The club does not have a licence to sell medical marijuana.
Club director Marc-Boris St. Maurice believes the get-tough approach will backfire. “If you treat drug users as criminals you are pushing people away from society, you are alienating them with that criminal label … that is not the way you are going to help them,” he said.
Louise Nadeau, who works at one of the largest public addiction treatment facilities in Montreal, said the extra money is vital.
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