Drug use is a health issue, not a criminal justice issue. That is the message youth and students from the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP) delivered to Members of Parliament on February 4, during their first hugely successful lobby day on Parliament Hill.

Students from Ontario and Quebec met with MPs and asked that Canadian drug policy be moved back to a health-based model instead of the current criminal justice-based approach to drug use. Two fundamental messages were delivered to MPs: the importance of harm reduction principles and programs for young people, and the importance of not criminalizing drug users.

Harm reduction principles and programs such as safe injection sites, crack kits, and needle exchanges are proven to reduce individual and social harms associated with drug use, especially the risk of Hepatitis C and HIV infection. Harm reduction is an approach to drug use and addiction that does not condone or encourage the use of substances while providing services that reduce drug-related harms.

Young people from the Harm Reduction Youth Advisory Committee of the Youth Service Bureau (YSB) in Ottawa participated in the lobby day and conveyed powerful stories of how harm reduction programs saved their lives.

At the community forum following the lobby, Janna Dickinson told her story about being a youth on the street: “One thing led to another and I was in so deep I didn’t know how to get out. This is one of the reasons that I feel so strongly about advocating for youth and getting awareness and information out there. I started using opiates intravenously because I didn’t know or understand the consequencesâe¦ That’s why I’m so glad to be here today, to have a chance to say what I really want people to hear. Not all panhandlers are users. Not all users are criminals. Not all dealers are malicious. There’s always something more. Issues from childhood, various mental states, anger, depression, poverty, discrimination. There are so many things at play here.”

MPs were also urged to vote against Bill C-26, which calls for mandatory minimum sentences for the possession and trafficking of drugs, including marijuana. The sentences are based on quantities; however, the production of one marijuana plant will result in a mandatory minimum sentence of six months incarceration. The proposed legislation would also double the maximum sentence for cannabis production from seven to fourteen years.

Not only do mandatory minimum sentences fail to deter drug use or crime, they result in massive justice system costs and put more people in jails and prisons (Department of Justice Canada, 2002). Another concern with Bill C-26 is that it includes “aggravating factors.” For example, an offence occurring near any public place that is frequented by persons under the age of 18 years will result in a stricter minimum sentence. These aggravating factors are left to wide interpretation and disproportionate sentencing. Bill C-26 is of great concern to CSSDP because criminalizing drug users is an ineffective response to substance use which creates more harm for young people, their communities, and larger society.

The feedback and response to the lobby day was immediate. MP Libby Davies (NDP, Vancouver East) is leading her party’s efforts to oppose, and vote against, Bill C-26. At least two other MPs, Liberals Larry Bagnell (Yukon) and Brian Murphy (Monctonâe”Riverviewâe”Dieppe), brought these concerns straight to the House of Commons debate on Bill C-26 that same evening. We urge all MPs to vote against Bill C-26 outright and not to let it progress to committee.

This lobby day was an important step for a national movement of students and young people who are mobilizing against the removal from its Anti-Drug Strategy of harm reduction support by the Harper government, and the archaic prohibition mindset from which policies like these stem. As young people we want and deserve a say in policies that are being justified in the name of youth.

These policies, exemplified by Bill C-26, do not keep us safe. Instead, the current move to a U.S.-style approach increases costs to taxpayers and results in more harm to drug users, young people, communities, and families.