Another reason why everyone wants to move to Canada

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Law/2005/10/16/1265038-cp.html

Report: T.O. should give out crack pipes
By MIKE OLIVEIRA


TORONTO (CP) - Toronto could become the next big Canadian city to give out free drug paraphernalia and designate legal drug-use zones if city council decides to pass recommendations in a new report.

The controversial measures are among 66 recommendations in a drug strategy report that was 18 months in the making and based on four components: prevention, harm reduction, treatment and enforcement.

Coun. Kyle Rae said the report addresses the issues of both legal and illegal substances and recognizes the reality that drug use cannot simply be eradicated.

"We know people are going to use (drugs). We would like to be able to make sure that if we can't get them to stop using, we're going to want them to learn safer behaviours about using," Rae said.

While police have said they can't endorse the report's more controversial recommendations, Rae said something must be done to stop the needless spread of disease and death.

"If we are providing people with (drug) kits - and I should say the City of Ottawa and the City of Winnipeg are already doing this, and in fact there are agencies in Toronto that are delivering these kits - it gives staff, councillors and street workers the opportunity to work with, identify, assist, advise or give counsel to people who are addicted," Rae said.

"It's an opportunity for outreach and in some cases, helping people get out of the culture. I think that's worth doing."

While the report uses the experiences of other jurisdictions for guidance, Rae said he found no other city that can be a model for addressing Toronto's specific drug problems.

"Some of us looked at London, I've been to Frankfurt and some people have gone out to see what's happening in the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver," Rae said.

"I'm not sure we found the experiences of other communities matching Toronto's. Toronto has a very diffuse drug use. There isn't one neighbourhood (like Vancouver or Frankfurt) where the drug use is concentrated," he said.

"Drug use in Toronto is all over the map. It's not focused in one neighbourhood." He also said that while heroin is the focus of drug policy elsewhere, it's not the major problem in Toronto.

"(Heroin) is not the drug of choice in Toronto. The drug of choice is crack cocaine," he said.

Rae said the report was needed and hopefully will be passed by council because drugs have long been a problem in Toronto but have not been properly addressed.

"Some would say crack cocaine - which arrived (in Toronto) in 1988 - has not had a response," he said.

"It's almost at the end of the second decade and we don't know how to deal with this issue. So it's important for us to develop a strategy."

The report also looks at strategies for dealing with casual substance users and recommends that the federal government go ahead with its plan to decriminialize marijuana.

It's another recommendation the police would not endorse but Liz Janzen, a healthy living director with Toronto Public Health, said it's a good idea.

"What we are saying is that the effects of criminalizing small amounts of marijuana at this point is not a good way of working with youth and adults who are smoking," she said.

"We do not say marijuana is a harmless drug, it is a drug and therefore has harmful effects (but)

it depends on how you use marijuana."

Alcohol use was also studied and the report found it to be the most problematic of the drugs that are available legally.

The report states that 78 per cent of Toronto adults said they drink, while 62 per cent of junior-high and high-school students admitted to drinking.

Recommendations for dealing with alcohol abuse include limiting the number of bars within a given area and a crackdown on underage drinking.

Gail Czukar of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health said she was excited by the report and its potential.

But she said it's only a worthwhile exercise if it brings change.

"The most important recommendation (of the report) is that there be an implementation mechanism and strategy going forward. (Hopefully) this isn't just a nice report and it does get implemented."

The report will be taken to Toronto city council on Dec. 5 through Dec. 9. Council can vote to implement any, all or none of the recommendations.

I thought you meant Terrell Owens when I read the thread title

wtf is Terrell Owens? :/

Dickhead receiver for the Phil. Eagles. Then again, he IS on the Eagles.

It wouldn't surprise me if he headed up to Toronto for some legal crack though.

I hope this passes.

Ah. Good to see that they are on track to help enable crack addicts and at the same time clamp down on casual drinkers. Thanks Jebus priorities are back on track in Canada.