Drugs Policy in Canada
Presentation to the Senate Committee on Illegal Drugs
October 16, 2000
Neil Boyd, Professor, School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University
The Origins of the Criminalization of Mind-Active Drugs:
1906: The Manchu Dynasty’s 10 per cent solution for reduction of China’s opium crop and corresponding reductions in the import of British Indian opium.
1908: The Shanghai Opium Commission: Reports from Peking about the extent of opium smoking; the U.S. and British initiatives.
1911, 1923: Additions of cocaine and marijuana, exclusion of alcohol, tobacco and caffeine from the schedule of prohibited substances.
The Canadian Experience, 1950-2000:
The Drugs Change: Increased purity, lower prices and greater availability in the wake of more intense enforcement.
Injectable heroin, cocaine,crack
Marijuana moves from import-export to decentralized domestic production, higher THC content from 1980 to the present.
Cocaine: The Medellin and Cali cartels give way to more decentralized distribution, the involvement of Mexico as a node for distribution.
Policy Choices:
Fundamental Questions:
Is illegal drug use a criminal law problem of morality or a problem of public health?
What is the nature of the logic that divides legal from illegal drugs?
Cannabis:
The Parker decision from the Ontario Court of Appeal, the scope of the protection for medicinal use of marijuana
The issue of harm, relative to tobacco and alcohol
The prison building movement in the U.S. and the problem of inertia
Cocaine and Heroin:
Heroin and Methadone: The need for expansion of methadone prescription? Are the current controls on the amounts of methadone and the requirement of negative urine tests reasonable? Do doctors who prescribe methadone require special licenses? Small scale prescription of heroin, on a closely monitored trial basis. - the LeDain recommendation of 1973?
Prescription Cocaine for injectable users: Physician supervision with closely monitored trials?
Safe injection sites: Less risk of overdose? The need for some form of medical supervision and the possibility of combining safe injection sites with prescription trials?