U.S. DRUG CZAR FINDS ALLY IN TORY GOVERNMENT

OTTAWA -- The man known as the U.S. drug czar offered an unusually
friendly message to Canada yesterday, thanking officials on this side
of the border for their "renewed focus on illicit drug abuse."

John Walters, the director of the National Drug Control Policy, was
in Ottawa to speak at a meeting of the Canadian Centre on substance
abuse, where he boasted that his policies have reduced drug use among
American teens by 23.2 per cent since 2001.

"We want work on controlling both supply and demand so we can see not
only declines, but sustained declines," he told reporters.

Mr. Walters has previously had tough talk for Canada when it comes to
this country's anti-drug measures. In 2002, he said British Columbia
was a major source of high-potency marijuana being imported into the
United States. That same year, he complained that liberalizing drug
laws in Canada would increase the flow of marijuana into his country.
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Reporters asked him yesterday to explain how Canada's co-operation on
the drug issue had changed over the past five years, and through the
governments of three prime ministers. Liberals Jean Chretien and Paul
Martin had talked about marijuana decriminalization, while the
Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promised
to end house arrests and ensure minimum mandatory sentences for
serious drug offenders.

At first, Mr. Walters dodged the question with platitudes.

"We've had continuous outstanding co-operation in terms of the things
like border security where we both have an interest. Obviously the
RCMP has got to be one of the finest law enforcement organizations in
history anywhere," he replied, adding that the United States wants a
consensus on the drug problem, not a violation of any other country's
sovereignty.

When pressed, he conceded, "the source of friction has been obviously
less under the current [Conservative] administration."

It is time that people acknowledged that marijuana is a dangerous
drug that damages the brains of users, Mr. Walters said. He came
armed with what he said were the results of studies that show that
more young marijuana users are becoming dependent on the substance
than alcohol or cigarettes.

And he pointed out that the administration of President George W.
Bush has requested a doubling of funds -- to $18-million -- to
increase random student drug tests.

Later in the day, critics of the U.S. drug policy expressed surprise
at Mr. Walter's tone.

"It was very much of a soft-pedal that seemed to be designed for a
Canadian audience. There was a lot of talk about health and helping
addicts," said Ethan Nadelmann, the founder of the Drug Policy
Alliance in New York, which promotes alternatives to the so-called
war on drugs. In fact, he said, U.S. drug policy is overwhelmingly punitive.

"I have heard John Walters speak and I didn't recognize him today. I
thought that he may have had a little B.C. bud before he came to
speak to us," said Liberal Senator Larry Campbell, the former mayor
of Vancouver, who was that city's chief coroner and who helped create
its safe-injection site for illegal drugs.

"He was very mellow, but if you listen to his message carefully it
contains things that should be very, very frightening to us. The idea
of this random testing, to me, just sends shivers up my back."

The Republicans in the United States treat prisons like a growth
industry for people accused of drug crimes, Mr. Campbell said. "I
think that Canadians, as a whole, have realized that addiction is a
medical problem, not a criminal problem."