FREE DRUGS WILL LURE ADDICTS TO B.C., RCMP CHIEF WARNS

Top Officer Fears Relaxed Drug Laws Would Make Drug Use Shoot
Up

VANCOUVER - The RCMP's top officer in charge of drug enforcement and
organized crime in Canada says he has concerns with Vancouver Mayor
Sam Sullivan's idea of giving free drugs to addicts.

"I think it will make things worse," Chief Superintendent Derek Ogden,
the RCMP's director general of drugs and organized crime, said Monday
during a meeting with the editorial board of The Vancouver Sun.

He believes drug use would increase if Vancouver adopted Sullivan's
idea to provide maintenance drugs to addicts.

"More people would come to Vancouver," he said. "Definitely I would
have a lot of concerns with that plan."

Ogden, when questioned, admitted he didn't have any evidence to prove
drug use would shoot up if Sullivan's idea were implemented.

"We've never had a situation where the drug laws have never been
enforced," he said. "My assumption is that drug usage would go up."

Ogden said he isn't opposed to drug harm reduction programs such as
needle exchanges to reduce the incidence of blood-borne diseases, but
feels harm reduction, in some circles, is becoming synonymous with
"facilitation" -- providing drugs to addicts in order to reduce crime
and take the profits away from organized crime.

"Facilitation isn't something we want to build Canada's drug strategy
on," explained Ogden, who was in Vancouver to attend an international
harm reduction conference.

He also believes legalizing drugs in Canada would not be a "magic
bullet" to get rid of organized crime and drug addiction.

"I think if it was legalized, we'd have a much greater problem than
what we have today," Ogden said.

He believes legalization would lead to increased drug use, health care
costs and Canada becoming a safe haven for drug dealers. Even if
marijuana was legalized, he said, organized crime groups would still
be involved in exporting pot for huge profits.

He favours education and treatment programs to reduce drug use,
pointing out how Canada's tobacco reduction strategy caused people to
quit smoking.

He cited a recent British study that found almost 60 per cent of drug
addicts had a real desire to move to abstaining from drugs while only
seven per cent were in favour of maintaining their level of drug use.

"They don't want to continue in that lifestyle," said Ogden, 47, who
has worked for 25 years in RCMP drug enforcement, starting his career
in Langley and taking over his new post last June.

The RCMP spends about $100 million a year on drug enforcement and
crime investigations -- a small portion of its multi-billion-dollar
annual budget.

There are 600 known organized crime groups operating in Canada, with
128 in B.C., said Ogden.