LEGALIZE ALL DRUGS, U.S. GOVERNOR TELLS VANCOUVER

VANCOUVER - Before he addressed a conference on this city's staggering drug
problem, Gary Johnson, the Governor of New Mexico, went for a walk through
the Downtown Eastside, where addicts openly smoke crack cocaine and shoot
up heroin.

"Those people, if they were in the United States, would be in jail," Mr.
Johnson would say later.

But what he saw in Vancouver's streets, where illicit drugs are openly sold
and consumed, didn't convince him to soften his message. Mr. Johnson is an
advocate of legalizing all drugs.

"The war on drugs is an absolute, miserable failure," he said. "It's
reached a level of insanity that needs reforming."

Mr. Johnson was a popular speaker at the conference, where presenters
repeatedly made the point that Canada's approach to drug abuse isn't working.

Mr. Johnson saw that for himself in the streets nearby, where he was
exposed to what is probably the biggest, open drug bazaar in North America.

No one would dispute the problem is huge. But the solutions advocated by
many of those at the conference -- calling for legalized drugs, safe
injection sites and government-supplied heroin, under a strategy known as
"harm reduction" -- remain controversial.

Indeed, while almost everyone agrees that change is needed, many experts
fear a shift to harm reduction will not work if it means an abandonment of
enforcement.

The debate, which has been going on for years among health, drug and law
enforcement experts, is increasingly moving into the public domain with
conferences like the one held this week at Simon Fraser University's
downtown campus, organized by AIDS Vancouver, and at a May conference,
sponsored by the International Drug Education and Awareness Society, where
a harder enforcement approach was advocated.

Mr. Johnson said the war on drugs should be abandoned and "the strategy
should be to reduce death, disease and crime."

It was a popular view at the conference, but the Canadian Police
Association just last year warned against any strategy that did not include
continued enforcement of drug laws.

"Canada must resist the seductive temptations being advanced by a
sophisticated drug lobby," stated the CPA in a policy paper. "While far
from perfect, current strategies have been effective in controlling the
scope of illicit drug use in Canada."