CANADA STILL LAGS IN DRUG-LAW REFORM

Despite Ottawa's decision to allow the use of medicinal marijuana,
Canada is still well behind several European countries when it comes
to reforming drug laws.

The Canadian law, which came into effect yesterday, allows severely
ill patients with a doctor's approval to apply to Health Canada to
grow and use marijuana.

Compared with the United States, which has taken a hard line in its
war against drugs, the move by Ottawa looks almost radical.

But compared with Portugal, which has decriminalized the use of
previously banned drugs -- from cannabis to crack cocaine -- Canada's
move doesn't seem so revolutionary.

"America has spent billions on enforcement but it has got nowhere,"
Vitalino Canas, Portugal's top official for drug policy, was quoted as
saying by the Guardian in Britain. "We view drug users as people who
need help and care."

The new Portuguese law, which came into effect July 1, does not mean
drugs are legal. However, drug users in Portugal no longer have to
fear prison if caught.

In Switzerland, officials announced in March they would take steps to
remove penalties for all consumption of hashish and marijuana.

The move came after a Swiss government survey found that as many as
one in four people in the country of seven million have tried pot.

Advocates of drug reform were quick to praise the Swiss.

"Switzerland is at the forefront," Ethan Nadelmann, executive director
of the U.S.-based Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation, said
yesterday. "First with their heroin trials . . . and second with
setting up marijuana regulation."

The Swiss have long given heroin to addicts for health
reasons.

With its experimentation with medical use of cannabis, Canada is
moving closer to the Swiss approach, said Nadelmann.

"The bottom line is that Canada is pulling away from the U.S. and
moving towards the European model," he said.

In March, Mexican President Vicente Fox also made headlines when he
suggested drugs could eventually be legalized.