Report from UBC’s Urban Health Research Initiative finds that Canada’s so-called war on drugs has not stopped the supply of drugs in the streets.
According to the new report released in Ottawa last week, our war on drugs has only served to increase drug-related violence.
Authors reviewed international research and concluded that 87% of studies linked strict law enforcement with an increased “drug-market violence”.
Dr. Evan Wood, the reports co-author, said that the “gun violence that we’ve seen in B.C., as in Mexico and the U.S., appears to be directly attributable to drug prohibition.”
He explains that prohibition simply drives up the value of drugs, thus creating an extremely lucrative market.
The report, thus, concludes that drug issues should be addressed as public health issues, and not as law and order, advocating that money should be spent on health measures that have better results than costly law-enforcement that don’t actually address drug addiction.
According to the report, we should be addressed the demand, not the supply.
This is a perspective echoed by the Obama administration and his new drug czar Gil Kerlikowske.
Download the full report here.
Source: The Province