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The “stunning display of unimaginative thinking” — by Ottawa and provincial governments — has failed to decrease the flow of drugs into Canada while hampering efforts to deal with drug-related health harms.

“Despite Canada’s significant investment in drug control efforts, drugs are cheaper and more available than ever,” the report notes.

Among the recommendations is a call to legalize, regulate and tax the sale of marijuana to adults, taking advantage of an underground business that generates an estimated $357-million in annual sales in B.C. alone, according to the authors.

But by far the most controversial recommendation calls for the end to prohibition of not only “soft” drugs like marijuana, but also products like heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines.

The report notes that at least 25 jurisdictions around the world have moved to decriminalize at least some drugs, with Portugal in 2001 and the Czech Republic in 2010 ending prohibition for all drugs.

“After decriminalization and similar to Portugal, drug use (among Czechs) has not increased significantly but the social harms of drug use have declined,” the report stated.

“In Portugal decriminalization has had the effect of decreasing the numbers of people injecting drugs, decreasing the number of people using drugs problematically, and decreasing trends of drug use among 15 to 24 year olds.”

The CDPC lists as its “partners” more than 70 organizations, including the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, the Central Alberta AIDS Network Society, the Canadian Cancer Survivor Network, and the Canadian Association of Nurses in AIDS Care.