ONE OF THE UNTOLD successes of the Bush administration has been the progress made in the fight against illegal drugs. During the past six years, during which John Walters has been director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, drug use among the most critical American age groups, 12- to 17-year-olds and 18- to 25-year-olds, has fallen dramatically. Usage in these age groups rose between 1993 and 2001, but under Walters, teen drug use, for example, is down more than 20 percent.
Many European governments, faced with the consequences of permissiveness and mounting data on the harmful effects of even soft narcotics such as cannabis, are turning against drugs, too. And now, the Great White North may follow suit. On October 4, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a change in direction for the government’s drug policy.
Marijuana has been increasingly tolerated by Canadian authorities, with three bills aiming to legalize possession of the substance introduced in parliament during the last five years. Those measures stalled and Harper has now proclaimed that Canada will embark on a different course, emphasizing treatment for drug users and jail for dealers and producers.
Harper’s new plan will devote $43 million to improved treatment facilities and a public awareness campaign about the dangers of drugs. Another $21 million will go to increased law enforcement, prosecutors, and intelligence assets. “If you’re addicted to drugs, we’ll help you,” Harper said. “If you deal drugs we’ll punish you.”
The other important component of Harper’s proposal will be the creation of mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes, which he’ll bring before parliament later this fall. “There are no minimum prison sentences for producing and trafficking dangerous drugs like methamphetamine and cocaine,” he explained. “These are serious crimes. Those who commit them should do serious time.”
In part, the changing attitude may be due to the cascading drug problems Canada has encountered in recent years. The International Narcotics Control Strategy Report notes that as Canada opened government-sponsored injection sites and drug-paraphernalia distribution centers and became increasingly tolerant of marijuana use, the country’s drug problems worsened dramatically.
“Canada has graduated from being a transit country to a source country for ecstasy,” the INCSR reports. And “commercial marijuana cultivation thrives . . . in part because growers do not face strict legal punishment.”
Attendant drug usage has risen sharply. Since 1989, the number of Canadians using cannabis has nearly doubled. A 2004 report from Statistics Canada shows that in 1989, 6.5 percent of Canadians reported having used cannabis at least once in the previous 12 months. By 1994, that percentage had risen to 7.4 percent. By 2002, it was 12.2 percent. The breakdowns by age cohort are even more striking: 23 percent of 18- and 19-year-olds reported usage in 1994; the number jumped to 38 percent in 2002. Twenty percent of 20- to 24-year-olds reported usage in 1994; that number jumped to 35 percent in 2002. Among Canadians who reported using cannabis in the last 12 months, 47.3 said they used it once a month or less; 18 percent said they used 1 to 3 times per month; 34.7 percent said they used once or more a week.
The use of harder drugs has also risen in Canada. In 1994, 1.6 percent of Canadians reported having used one or more of five other drugs (cocaine/crack; ecstasy; LSD; speed/amphetamines, heroin). In 2002, that number rose to 2.4 percent, an increase of 50 percent.
Even in the face of this worrisome data, some Canadian liberals have attacked Harper’s new plan. Winnipeg MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis called the strategy a “George Bush-style war on drugs.” Harper’s plan differs considerably from America’s drug strategy, and, under President Bush, drug usage has fallen dramatically in the States. But never mind all that. Part of Harper’s pledge was “to change the culture” in Canada. Judging from the frantic, nonsensical reactions on the Canadian left, the culture may already be changing, for the better.
Jonathan V. Last is a staff writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
