Compassionate drug policy is anything but woke Canada shows us why

Canada doesn’t confine its dangerous and inhumane “health” policies to the realm of euthanasia.A look at the world of “harm reduction” — radical policies that encourage, rather than discourage, drug use — shows how deeply our neighbor to the north has sunk into a crisis of both morality and public health.This month, the Canadian federal government will start supplying paper straws to prisoners in correctional facilities across the nation — to encourage “safer snorting.”The straws are “intended for inhaling substances in powdered form or inhaling vapor from heated substances,” a staff memo from Corrections Canada explained.How, one might ask, could a change of straw material make using jailhouse coke or heroin any “safer”?Simple: They’ll “reduce harm” by preventing cuts to the inner nostril that metal or plastic straws can cause — cuts that spread hepatitis B and C and other dangerous diseases.The same memo publicized plans to hand out foil strips specially designed for “safer smoking” of drugs like meth and crack, along with drug-testing kits meant to help prisoners confirm their cocaine isn’t contaminated with fentanyl or tranq.Once again, the True North makes American experiments with lax drug policies — from NYC’s “safe injection” sites to Oregon’s now-recalled hard-drug-decriminalization Measure 110 — look like rank amateurism.The rationale behind this is familiar.Making sure that addicts can access and use drugs anywhere, at any time, is a form of radical compassion that’s rooted in a drive toward some undefined standard of “equity.”And any criticism of that is nothing but “irresponsible populist nonsense” (as Carolyn Bennett, then Canada’s Mental Health and Addictions Minister, said in 2022).But Canada keeps pushing the boundaries farther than ever, not just in prisons but also on the streets.Last month a federal judge in British Columbia stayed the convictions of two drug traffickers because, s...