UN CONFERENCE TACKLES DRUG USE

Local proponents of harm reduction will have a chance to advise the
United Nations on international drug policy at a UN-endorsed
conference next week.

Vancouver is playing host to some 70 to 80 drug experts next Monday
and Tuesday as part of an international conference on drug use.

For UVic researcher and conference organizer Dan Reist, the UN
dialogue has been focused on enforcement issues, leaving out matters
of human rights and harm reduction.

"We'd like to see these things more front and centre in the
discussion," Reist said yesterday.

The conference is aimed at a range of perspectives. In addition to
drug-user groups like Vancouver's VANDU, civil liberties groups and
others that support somewhat controversial harm-reduction measures,
the conference will also feature delegates from the conservative Drug
Free America Foundation.

Former provincial court judge Jerry Paradis will represent the group
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, which is critical of the current
widespread prohibition policy on drugs.

"The present policy is bankrupt. It creates rather than assists in
disease, death, crime and addiction," Paradis said. "I'm hoping some
people will take that back to [the UN] and maybe, maybe, they'll start
talking realistically about what to do about the drug problem."