'FIGHT DRUGS WITH HEALTH CARE'

U.S.-Style 'War' A Dismal Failure and Canada Shouldn't Try It

As long as the U.S-style "war on drugs" continues, criminals will
control what drugs are sold, how much they cost, how deadly those
drugs are, and how young their customers will be. That was the message
delivered yesterday by Jack Cole, a retired New Jersey police officer
who spent 26 years making arrests in connection with "billions of
dollars in cocaine and heroin" as well as other drugs.

"The war on drugs in the U.S. has been a dismal failure," said Cole,
the founder of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).

He was speaking at Beyond 2008, a United Nations global forum at the
Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University's
downtown campus.

Cole said delegates should urge Prime Minister Stephen Harper not to
make the mistake of following the hardline U.S. drug "prohibition and
punishment" stance.

The U.S. war on drugs has cost on average $69 billion a year for the
past 35 years and led to 37 million arrests for nonviolent drug
offences, said Cole.

"Despite all the lives we have destroyed and all the money so
ill-spent, today illicit drugs are cheaper, more potent and easier to
get than they were 35 years ago and more people are dying in the
streets at the hands of drug barons," said Cole, who claims LEAP has
10,000 members, including cops, judges and probation and parole officers.

"Right now, criminals are telling us what drugs are going to be
supplied, how those drugs will be cut, what they will cost and who's
going to be selling to 10-year-olds," said Cole.

"We need to treat drug addiction as a health problem," said Cole,
adding that LEAP hopes to "at least get the legalization and
regulation of drugs on the agenda."

The two-day forum, one of several around in the world leading to a
July conference in Vienna, has more than 100 delegates with widely
differing viewpoints, from DARE B.C. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education)
to Drug-Free America, from Virginians Against Drug Violence to the
Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU).

Early this morning, delegates will tour Insite, Vancouver's
safe-injection facility that is a first in North America. The Canadian
government has given Insite a six-month reprieve from drug
enforcement, until this June, but is not committed to permanent
operation of the clinic, which opened in 2003 with B.C. government
funding.

VANDU spokesman Dean Wilson, who said yesterday was his 52nd birthday
and the 40th anniversary of his first hit of heroin, is at the
conference to advocate for drug users.

"There's everyone here from drug warriors to anti-drug warriors, but I
can pit my my wits against any of them because I've actually walked
the walk," said Wilson, who explained he's used methadone instead of
heroin for nine months.

"Why do they feel they have the moral high ground? All they've done is
make bad people rich."

Cole was heckled outside the conference by Dr. Kevin Sabet, a former
Republican speechwriter who is now with Florida's Project Sundial
(Supporting United Nations Drug Initiatives and Legislation).

Sabet criticized the Vancouver forum for being made up "80 per cent"
by "people who all agree with each other."

"Go to African-American communities in the U.S. inner cities and bring
up legalization and watch their reaction," said Sabet.

Sgt. Scott Rintoul of the RCMP's drug-awareness section, slammed LEAP
and its pro-legalization stance.

"Canada has no war on drugs, because a war should have a general in
charge of an army," said Rintoul.

"We need strong leadership, a sound prevention and treatment strategy,
law enforcement, a justice system and strong community attitudes
against drugs, and we're lacking on many of those fronts.

"But for these guys to come in and talk about legalization of drugs is
to just give up. It's like they want us to throw our hands up and say,
'We've lost the war, let's legalize drugs,' " said Rintoul.

"Half of the RCMP's enforcement budget is spent on alcohol-related
crime, and alcohol is legal and regulated," he said.