VANCOUVER TO PRESS OTTAWA TO LEGALIZE AND TAX MARIJUANA

Mayor Larry Campbell Backs Controversial Proposal As Part Of Strategy To
Fight Drug Abuse

A City of Vancouver report backed by the mayor recommends Canada legalize
and regulate marijuana as part of a comprehensive drug-abuse prevention
strategy for everything from methamphetamine production to alcoholism among
seniors.

The marijuana recommendation, one of two dozen in the report being released
today, would allow people trying to prevent drug abuse to talk to teenagers
about it realistically, the way they do with alcohol and cigarettes, and
also limit dangerous use.

It's a strategy that Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell endorses
wholeheartedly, saying it's preferable to decriminalization, which imposes
a fine instead of a criminal charge for use, but doesn't address the issue
of supply.

"I think the decriminalization doesn't do anybody any good. It sends the
message that it's okay, but that it's a crime to obtain it." He says if
marijuana were legalized, the community could benefit by being able to tax
production.

Campbell, a one-time RCMP drug officer, acknowledges that Vancouver's stand
won't produce immediate change.

"It's a talking point, but clearly it's something that has to be done in
Canada."

The report goes to council June 14 and then out for public discussion,
before final approval likely next January.

Others say that putting marijuana on the same level as alcohol and tobacco
legally would allow teachers and prevention counsellors to talk about it
strategically, rather than just avoiding the topic.

"All that teachers can do now is say it's illegal," says the city's drug
policy coordinator Don MacPherson, who wrote the 67-page report.

If marijuana was treated like alcohol, he said, teachers could provide the
same kind of advice they do when trying to prevent teenagers from risky
drinking behaviour.

However, he also emphasized that Canada should learn from the mistakes it
made with alcohol and tobacco, which have been turned into commercial
products, heavily advertised and promoted, which has led to problems
stemming from the abuse of those two substances that far exceeds those of
illegal drugs.

The report notes that "even with the best prevention strategies anywhere in
the world, we are limited in what we can do unless there are changes to the
legal frameworks for psychoactive substances. The current system of
prohibition for illegal drugs, this plan argues, has failed in its goal to
reduce the availability of illegal substances and to prevent harm from
their use."

It also argues that prohibition leaves governments unable to regulate the
drug, ensures that it stays in the hands of organized crime, and makes it
impossible to use the kinds of public-education strategies that have been
so successful in reducing tobacco use and dangerous drinking.

The report's other recommendations include public education starting with
young children and extending to seniors, whose problems with alcoholism and
prescription-pill addiction are often ignored in discussions about drug abuse.

Campbell said he likes the recommendations in the report, which has been a
couple of years in the making, because it is so comprehensive.

"It recognizes that this can't be done just by Vancouver, so it's bringing
in all the other levels. And it's looking at all the drugs, including
tobacco and alcohol."

The report is the latest offensive in Vancouver's attempt to tackle the
city's drug problems, which have contributed to an epidemic of HIV and
hepatitis infections unequalled in North America, the deterioration of the
city's inner-city Downtown Eastside neighbourhood, and a property-crime
rate among the highest in Canada.

It's part of the city's Four Pillars strategy, which emphasizes an approach
that is an equal mix of law enforcement, prevention, treatment and harm
reduction for drug users. That policy was adopted four years ago, amid some
controversy because of the harm-reduction aspects, which included a
recommendation to create a health facility where users could go to inject
drugs under the supervision of health-care workers.

Campbell was elected as mayor in 2002, in part because he and his party
said they would work to aggressively implement the policy. The supervised
injection site was opened in the fall of 2003.

DRUG USE: A NEW APPROACH 10%

Proportion of casino revenue that cities would earmark for drug-abuse
prevention under a recommendation by the City of Vancouver report.

Other recommendations within the City of Vancouver's report on drug-abuse
prevention strategy:

- - Create an agenda that would monitor the use of psychoactive substances in
B.C., which would identify early trends in drug use and provide information
to the public on the purity of illicit drugs.

- - Initiate a "safer bars" pilot program.

- - Advocate for stricter regulation of the chemicals needed to manufacture
crystal meth and work with other agencies to address the potential threat
of secret meth labs.