A Canadian AIDS group has issued a report slamming that nation's anti-drug strategy as wasteful and misdirected, the CanWest News Service reported Jan. 15.

The B.C. Center for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, locked in a struggle with Canada's new conservative government over the fate of a supervised drug-injection site in Vancouver, said that three-quarters of Canada's drug budget goes toward law enforcement when the national drug strategy calls for a harm-reduction approach.

"While the stated goal of Canada's drug strategy is to reduce harm, evidence obtained through this analysis indicates that the overwhelming emphasis continues to be on conventional enforcement-based approaches which are costly and often exacerbate, rather than reduce, harms," said the report, published in the HIV/AIDS Policy and Law Review.

The Canadian Police Association (CPA), considered a close ally of the current government in Ottawa, has condemned both the Vancouver safe-injection program and other harm-reduction measures. "This harm-reduction focus has led to unprecedented levels of crime in our city," said CPA vice-president Tom Stamatakis, who is also president of the Vancouver Police Union.

The report said that 73 percent of Canada's $368 million anti-drug budget went toward border control, police investigations and federal prosecutions, compared to $51 million for treatment, $26 million for research, $10 million for prevention, and $10 million for harm-reduction activities.