Vancouver MP speaks out against Bill C-15

Libby Davies, MP for Vancouver East (including Downtown Eastside) spoke stongly against Bill C-15 in Parliament last March.

Libby’s speech was reprinted at the LEAP website. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition is one the the strongest voices for drug policy reform in North America. In fact, on September 19th a New York Times Op-Ed Piece actually declared LEAP to be the “most effective” drug reform organization in America.

Libby’s speech from last spring is well-worth reading. Here’s a bit of what she said:

About 73% of federal dollars on drug policy in Canada go toward enforcement. Only 2.6% goes to prevention, only 2.6% goes to harm reduction and about 14% to treatment. That is a very uneven balance…
It might interest people to know that in 1994, 28% of Canadians reported having used illicit drugs, but by 2004 that number was at 45%. Certainly, the policies we have had that have been so focused on the criminal regime and the criminalization of drug users have been completely ineffective. We only have to look south of the border, where the so-called war on drugs has unleashed billions and billions of dollars and where we see massive numbers of people incarcerated, to see what a failure it is…
This bill would take a radical departure from that four-pillar approach by emphasizing the enforcement regime even more, taking it to some greater lengths by bringing in a regime of mandatory minimum sentencing. I think this is a huge mistake. There is no question that it is the core of the Conservative government’s agenda around crime. It is about the political optics. I have called it the politics of fear. People are concerned about drug use and crime in their communities. They are particularly concerned about young people being involved in using drugs. However, this bill will not deal with that. This bill will not change that situation. In fact, the evidence from both Canada and the United States shows us that the opposite will happen. It will only make the situation worse.

See LEAP reprint in its entirety here. Thanks for speaking “truth to power” Libby.