Time to End the War on Drugs

I just can't give enough credit to Conservative Senator Elaine McCoy. Today, on her always frank and outspoken blog, Hullabaloos, she again speaks truth to power, calling for a revisiting of the decriminalization debate, this at the same time that the increasingly morally challenged Harper government is calling for mandatory minimum sentences for even small amounts of marijuana (surely shameless pandering by a minority government trying to shore up its base). This is, in effect, makes common cause with Libby Davies of the NDP, who is spearheading efforts to defeat Bill C-15.

Davies represents Vancouver's downtown east side, an area as ravaged by drugs as any in Canada. One of her constituents is Dr. Gabor Mate, medical director for a social housing program and manager of Canada's only safe injection site (which the Harper government has attacked relentlessly). Both are passionate and eloquent and I am convinced right in their belief that the war on drugs is a war on our society's most damaged and vulnerable people. Here is a video of a talk Mate gave recently on TVO's Big Ideas



And here is a link to excerpts from a recent speech on this issue by Libby Davies.