U.S. DRUG CZAR PRAISES OTTAWA

Urges Feds to Crack Down on Pot

OTTAWA - The American drug czar who once blasted Canada for
safe-injection sites and for exporting "the crack of marijuana" to the
U.S. was much more mellow Thursday during his first visit here in two
years.

A new roster of Conservative officials bent on tougher anti-drug laws
had something to do with it.

"The United States appreciates Canada's renewed focus on disrupting
organized criminal activity, and reducing illicit drug use and
trafficking," said John Walters, director of U.S. National Drug
Control Policy.

"I've seen terrific consensus here in my visit so far," he told a news
conference.

"I think the debate that has been a source of friction has been
obviously less under the current administration."

Walters was speaking of the diplomatic war of words that flared under
the former Liberal regime over plans to decriminalize possession of
small amounts of pot.

The Stephen Harper Conservatives quickly axed that idea. They have
also proposed a roster of get-tough anti-drug measures that include
minimum mandatory sentences for trafficking and other serious offences.

Walters was in Canada for the first time since the Tories took power,
touting a U.S. drug policy that he said has cut overall drug use among
American teens by 23 per cent since 2001.

Reported marijuana use among youth is down 25 per cent, while
methamphetamine use dropped by half, he said.

Walters credited a blend of treatment, prevention and strict
law-and-order measures.

Critics weren't buying it. Lawyers, academics and a Liberal senator
warned against a U.S.-style approach in Canada, saying it's expensive
and unproven.

They say the Conservatives should reconsider any drug crackdown that
focuses more on prison terms than prevention, treatment or so-called
harm-reduction programs such as clean needle exchanges.

Canadians shouldn't look south for sound advice, says Ethan Nadelmann,
executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance in New York and author
of several books on the subject.

He accused Walters of "sugar-coating" the effects of America's
"prohibitionist" anti-drug approach - a costly strategy that relies
heavily on incarceration, he said.

There are now almost 500,000 drug offenders behind bars in the U.S.,
up from about 50,000 in 1980, Nadelmann said.

"More individuals are in prison in the U.S. than any other country on
Earth. About one-quarter of prisoners are there on drug offences."

Nadelmann disputes claims that such punitive tactics have helped curb
use of illicit drugs in the U.S., noting that use of narcotics has
similarly waxed and waned in Canada without such extreme measures.

Walters "spends his time promoting marijuana as the most dangerous
drug and going to schools to push for mandatory drug testing that's
unproven as a means to decrease drug use," Nadelmann said.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy announced last
month that it will hold four regional summits promoting random student
drug testing in public middle and high schools.

The contentious program, which has already started in nearly 1,000
middle and high schools across the country, requires kids to pass
random drug tests if they want to try out for sports teams.