Question by Ken: What is the Canadian government doing to prevent drug use?
Well, yeah, the title is self explanatory. I just want to know what the goernment is doing to stop drugs.

Best answer:

Answer by KC V
With approximately 1,000,000 drug users in Canada, including some 250,000 cocaine addicts and 40,000 heroin addicts, The Government of Canada’s (GOC) drug control strategy emphasizes drug abuse prevention and treatment. The law enforcement component emphasizes action against organized crime. Canadian law enforcement officials cooperate closely with their U.S. counterparts on narcotics investigations and interdiction efforts.

Canada is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention and participates actively in international drug control efforts.

Canada’s drug strategy, the third in a series of five-year plans, was issued in 1998. While the strategy is comprehensive, addressing all of the foregoing problems, it focuses most of its
counternarcotics efforts, and resources (approximately 70%), on domestic demand reduction. Building on stronger anti-drug legislation passed in 1997, the Canadian drug strategy calls for
a new targeting imperative on organized crime by the Solicitor General’s Office.

While the RCMP has mounted effective operations against narcotics and other criminal organizations, the impact of these efforts have been undermined in numerous cases by court
decisions. Canadian courts have been reluctant to impose tough prison sentences, often opting for fines, reflecting a widespread view that drugs are a “victimless” crime or simply a health issue, not a criminal or public safety concern. For example, one court dismissed charges against an individual arrested for snorting crack in a public restroom, calling it an invasion of his privacy. The Supreme Court has questioned the legality of police involvement in “sting”-type operations, undercover “buys” and other techniques now commonly used around the world in drug investigations, largely on privacy grounds, as a potential violation
of the 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Canadian press reports indicate that only about 20% of those convicted of growing marijuana in Vancouver receive jail terms, and that British Colombia has the highest rate of acquittal rates in the nation. In January, a judge ruled that a convicted criminal, who had already been deported by the GOC, must be returned
to Canada at GOC expense to pursue his request for refugee status, despite having aided two Colombian drug traffickers to escape from jail.

Canada actively participates in international anti-drug fora including: the United Nations International Drug Control Program (UNDCP), the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission of the Organization of American States (CICAD), the Dublin Group, the Financial Action Task Force, and other groups. Canada is an active participant in the UN negotiations on a global crime convention.

The GOC emphasizes demand reduction in its drug control strategy and, along with non-governmental organizations, offers extensive drug abuse prevention programs.

Hope this helps….best wishes!

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