DELEGATES DECRIED AS ELITIST

Protesters Say People Attending Drug Conference Are Isolated From The Stark
Realities Of Addiction

The approximately 3,000 conference delegates in Montreal this week to
discuss drug dependency are an isolated elite, protesters said yesterday.

About 30 people, most of them young, demonstrated with hand-lettered
placards in Viger Square in downtown Montreal yesterday.

They then walked about 10 blocks to the Palais des Congres as the World
Forum on Drugs, Dependencies, Impacts and Responses held its opening
reception at the convention centre.

After making a symbolic effort to enter the Palais and being waved back by
two security officers, protesters tossed a shopping bag full of syringes
outside the door.

A leaflet said this was a symbol of the conference's exclusion of reality.

(As a safety precaution, the needles had been removed from the syringes and
their protective caps glued back into place. What appeared to be blood in
some syringes was tincture of iodine.)

Martin Petit, spokesman for a half-dozen individuals who set up the
demonstration, said most of the organizers or protesters were drug users or
street workers for agencies.

The $825 registration fee excluded most drug users and workers for
low-budget agencies from attending, he said, arguing this will contribute
to favouring exclusivist and repressive points of view.

Conference spokesman Bouba Slim said delegates associated with a wide range
of organizations were eligible for a $565 fee.

Lower fees were also available for students, those registering early and
those attending by the day.

Slim said there were also some government-subsidized free registrations,
available through certain agencies.

About 3,000 people from about 80 countries are attending the conference,
sponsored by a range of governmental and other organizations.

Among the approximately 700 speakers scheduled is Queen Noor of Jordan,
representing the Mentor Foundation, an international organization devoted
to substance-abuse issues.