POLITICIANS RULE OUT LEGALIZATION OF DRUGS

Legislators from North and South America refuse to debate topic at Ottawa
summit

North and South American politicians rejected as inappropriate a proposal
by a Colombian congressman to debate legalization of drugs at an
international conference hosted by Canada this week.

At a preliminary meeting in Ottawa last September to plan the conference,
the Colombian politician attempted to get the controversial legalization
proposal on the agenda of the first meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary
Forum of the Americas.

But Julio Angel Restrepo, the Colombian opposition congressman, did not
make the trip to Ottawa for the conference and was not among the 100
lawmakers from 27 countries to attend this week's inaugural meeting of the
organization.

"He (Mr. Restrepo) is not here," Colombian Senator Antonio Guerra said
yesterday in a brief interview. "That topic will not be discussed here. I
don't think this is a forum to do so."

When Mr. Restrepo called for a legalization debate last fall, he received
media coverage in Canada and in his country. The Colombian government
opposes legalization and recently accepted more than $1.3 billion in U.S.
military aid to fight the war on drugs.

Canadian Alliance MP John Williams, a forum member, agreed that drug
legalization would have been an inappropriate agenda item.

"It (drug use) destroys societies. Therefore, legalization is not an issue,
so that debate will not happen here."

The forum has been set up to mirror the Organization of American States,
but also includes opposition politicians. Delegates hope their conference
influences some of the discussion by their political leaders at next
month's Summit of the Americas in Quebec City.

The Ottawa meeting, sponsored by Parliament, was held to discuss a variety
of topics, including free trade, eradicating poverty, and eliminating crime
and corruption. Colombia is seen as the problem child of the Americas
because it supplies most of the world's cocaine.

Mr. Restrepo, who acknowledged he was raising a "taboo" subject, had hoped
that the forum would allow a debate on drug legalization.

"Legalization could mean depriving drug traffickers of the powerful
economic ingredient that makes this illicit activity so lucrative," he said
last fall.

In their meeting yesterday, the delegates also agreed that more had to be
done by the international community to attack the bank accounts of drug
barons. But legalization was never mentioned as a way of doing that.
Instead, the debate was filled with fiery war-on-drugs rhetoric.

"The fight against drug trafficking and money laundering is a universal
struggle," declared Antonio Posso Delgado of Ecuador.

At the same time, he was also critical of the massive U.S. military aid
package to Colombia, much of which will be used to directly fight drug
producers by using helicopters to spray toxic chemicals on coca fields.

Mr. Delgado said the military intervention would destabilize neighbouring
countries such as his own.

"It could turn South America into a sort of Vietnam. This is not good for
anyone," he said.

Mr. Guerra defended Colombia's right to "ask for international aid to
battle against drug trafficking." But he candidly admitted that the
American aid package is too heavily weighted toward military hardware
instead of humanitarian aid.

Many observers predict thousands of people will be displaced, causing a
widespread humanitarian crisis within Colombia once the spraying of fields
begins.

Mr. Guerra said Colombia simply cannot confront the people responsible for
its drug problem -- heavily-armed guerrillas and insurgents -- without a
massive influx of military aid.