DRUG CZAR RIPS CANADA OVER POT

DETROIT -- Federal drug czar John Walters came to Detroit on Thursday to
condemn Canadian efforts to decriminalize drugs.

"You don't make a major decision involving a dangerous drug without telling
people what the dangers are," Walters said. "Marijuana is not harmless.
Marijuana is not medicine. I wish it were, but it isn't."

Last week, a Canadian Senate committee recommended legalizing marijuana for
people ages 16 and older. If successful, drug-control advocates fear it
would send Michigan residents across the border into Canada to buy the
drug, which has been outlawed in the United States since the 1930s.

Walters, who directs the White House Office of Drug Control Policy,
predicted the Canadian effort would fail.

There is strong support in Canada for decriminalizing marijuana, which
would reduce the penalty for getting caught with the drug to the equivalent
of a traffic ticket. The move is supported by the Canadian Association of
Chiefs of Police, the Canadian Medical Association and Justice Minister
Martin Cauchon.

Walters, who has met with Canadian officials to lobby against the effort,
noted that U.S. enforcement on the northern border has been dramatically
increased since 9-11.

"American drug users are contributers to terrorism," Walters said, citing
the funneling of drug profits to violent groups in Mexico and Colombia.

U.S. Customs seizures of drugs in Detroit jumped this year, with increased
scrutiny given to motorists and truckers using the Ambassador Bridge and
the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.

Walters said the United States might take additional actions at the border
if Canada decriminalized marijuana, but he declined to elaborate.

"We will do what is necessary to protect this country," he said.