CONSIDER LEGALIZING DRUG USE, PANEL SAYS

One of Two Options Given to Premier

VANCOUVER -- A blue-ribbon advisory group to British Columbia Premier
Gordon Campbell has offered the government two choices for dealing
with crime and illegal drugs: Consider lobbying for legalization or go
for an all-out war on drugs.

Stepping aggressively into the contentious debate over drugs, the B.C.
Progress Board says access to "the products" could be limited to
adults in the same way that tobacco and alcohol access is limited. In
the same vein, drug addiction could be treated as a health issue, Mr.
Campbell was told.

However, if legalization is unacceptable, then the provincial
government should aim to eliminate the trade entirely in the province
within 10 years, the advisers say. A crackdown on the drug trade would
mean more police, tougher penalties for drug-related crimes and more
jails to accommodate the dramatically increased demand for secure facilities.

The options were among those set out in a report on reducing crime and
improving the criminal justice system released earlier this week by
the B.C. Progress Board. The board is a group of 18 businessmen and
academics appointed by the provincial government to offer advice on
economic and social issues. Board member Rob Gordon, a criminologist
at Simon Fraser University, was the primary author of the report.

Crime rates for violent crime and property crime have dropped
significantly in B.C. over the past decade. The province's 2005
violent-crime rate dropped 14 per cent from 1995. Vancouver, with a
21-per-cent drop in the rate of violent crime, has had less than the
provincial rate for each year since 1995. Meanwhile, property crime in
Vancouver is down by 29 per cent over the past decade, dropping even
more dramatically in Vancouver than in the rest of the province.

However, B.C. continues to have higher rates of crime than most other
provinces. The progress board says the illegal drug trade, estimated
to be worth more than $2-billion annually, is one of the primary
sources of crime in B.C.

Mr. Gordon said yesterday an aging population is most responsible for
the reduction in crime. Those most active in criminal activity are
between the ages of 14 and 26, and the size of that age group has
shrunk in recent years, he said.

The impact of current government policies on the criminal rate has
been minimal, Mr. Gordon said. The federal and B.C. governments must
make significant moves if they want to bring the provincial crime
rates down further, he said. Legalizing illegal drugs would be good
social policy, he said.

The government could regulate and tax it, and use the revenue to cover
health costs associated with drug addictions.

However, both Solicitor-General John Les and Mr. Campbell have
previously expressed their opposition to legalization of illegal drugs.

Mr. Gordon said federal and provincial governments in recent years
have adopted "a wishy-washy approach" to illegal drugs which offered
fertile ground for crime to flourish. If legalization is unacceptable,
then the government should consider the option of adopting measures to
drive the illegal drug-trade industry out of the province.

The report also includes a third option: Begin with the war on drugs
and after 10 years bring in legalization in steps, starting with
decriminalization. The status quo is another option, the report
states. "But this is clearly not acceptable if we seek to truly reduce
the rates of crime and victimization in the province," the report says.

The option of legalization of narcotics and other drugs has been
vigorously debated in B.C. since the late 1990s. Earlier this year,
Chief Superintendent Derek Ogden, of the RCMP's drug and organized
crime section, told a Vancouver newspaper that legalization would
create much bigger problems for Canada, leading to increased drug use
and health-care costs. Canada would become a safe haven for drug
dealers, he said.

But retired Seattle police chief Norm Stamper told a Vancouver
luncheon that the U.S. war on drugs was a failure. Despite spending
$1-trillion to fight drug trade since 1969, the problems are worse, he
said, adding that regulating illegal drugs would be a better approach.