"Health & Medical News"

A $10-million grant to the Canadian Center on Substance Abuse will support a national campaign to discourage illicit-drug use among 10- to 24-year-olds, the Canwest News Service? reported Jan. 31.

Canada’s new Drug Prevention Strategy for Youth (PDF) aims to reduce youth drug-use rates, delay the onset of use, reduce drug-use frequency, and cut the use of multiple substances among those who do take drugs. It is part of the conservative government’s National Anti-Drug Strategy released in the fall and will include a two-year media campaign.

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Facing extradition to the United States, marijuana-legalization advocate Marc Emery — known as the “Prince of Pot” — has agreed to serve a five-year prison sense in Canada on charges of money laundering and selling marijuana seeds, the Vancouver Sun reported Jan. 14.

Emery’s case has been a cause celebre for the legalization movement as well as Canadians who chafe at perceived heavy-handed U.S. law enforcement. Along with two associates, Emery was arrested by Canadian police at the request of the U.S. in August 2005, even though Canadian officials had long looked the other way when Emery and others were selling marijuana seeds.

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Even as U.S. lawmakers, jurists and policymakers have eased some mandatory drug sentences, Canada’s Justice Minister is proceeding with a plan to introduce the concept to the Canadian justice system, the Regina Leader-Post reported Nov. 28.

A pair of Canadian government reports concluded that mandatory minimum drug sentences don’t work, with one 2005 study concluding, “Minimum sentences are not an effective sentencing tool: that is, they constrain judicial discretion without offering any increased crime prevention benefits.”

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The conservative government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is set to unveil a new drug strategy that critics say takes its major cues from the U.S. War on Drugs, the Ottawa Citizen reported Oct. 4.

The $64-million plan being released today is expected to include an education campaign that stresses that there are “no safe drugs.” Health Minister Tony Clement said the campaign is aimed at countering “confusion” about the safety and legal status of marijuana.

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