CANADA VIOLATES INTERNATIONAL DRUG TREATY, SAYS UN AGENCY

GENEVA (CP) - A United Nations drug control agency says Canada is
violating the 1971 convention on mind-altering substances. Canada
makes no effort to monitor the sale of prescription drugs like
barbiturates and amphetamines, making it easy for them to be diverted
to the black market, the International Narcotics Control Board says.

"We have been very disappointed that the people responsible for these
issues in the government are not paying sufficient attention to it,"
says Herbert Schaepe, secretary of the INCB.

"We have not been able to solve this through the usual silent
diplomacy," adds Schaepe.

"So, therefore, the INCB has no other remedy but to call the attention
of the public to it."

The INCB is part of the United Nations International Drug Control
Program in Vienna.

It has just issued its annual report which assesses the drug control
situation worldwide.

Since 1987, when Canada agreed to the convention, the INCB has been
trying to get Ottawa to implement its control provisions.

"And after 13 years," says Schaepe, "we now have to report to the
international community that Canada is the only developed country with
serious deficiencies when it comes to the implementation of that treaty.

"Canada is a loophole in the international drug control
system."

And this, he contends "could adversely affect efforts to control quite
a number of substances."

The 1971 convention obliges all governments to introduce certain
control measures such as licensing of companies, import-export
authorizations, prescription requirements and inspection
requirements.

Psychotropic drugs such as benzodiazepines, familiarly known as
"bennies," phenobarbital, various barbiturates, amphetamines and
anorectics or "slimming pills" can be obtained legally by
prescription.

They are often overprescribed and can be dangerous when used to
excess, the report says, adding that the large demand for many of
these mind-altering drugs has led to a flourishing illicit trade.

Schaepe says people who want to divert these substances to illicit
markets "can do that easily through Canadian brokers or Canadian
companies because there are simply no records, there is no monitoring
of these movements."

He notes that the government does not send the INCB the mandatory
reports which it must submit in accordance with the
conventions.

"So, Canada is clearly in breach with the convention."

However, Prof. Neil Boyd, a criminologist at Simon Fraser University
in Burnaby, B.C., says the market for such drugs is "very limited."

"The notion that Canada is a transshipment point, there's not much
evidence that that takes place," he said.

In its report, the INCB warns that cannabis abuse is rising in many
parts of the world and continues to be the most popular drug of abuse
in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Marijuana and hashish are among the popular drugs derived from
cannabis.

The report points to an upsurge in indoor cultivation of very potent
strains of cannabis in Canada and the United States.

The agency also says it has evidence of the illegal trafficking of
highly potent cannabis from western Canada and Quebec to the United
States.

In addition, cannabis is being smuggled into Canada and the U.S. in
large quantities, it says.

The INCB is concerned that the indoor cultivation of very potent
varieties of cannabis is being promoted over the internet "through Web
sites located primarily on servers in Canada."

Boyd says any concerns over cannabis are coming solely from the United
States, where an outdated war on drugs continues.

"There is no international alarm about cannabis," Boyd told The
Canadian Press.

"I think this is very restricted to America and I think that America
is the country that is very out of step with the most civilized parts
of the world."

"The consistent theme in Western Europe is 'Let's reduce the harm from
drugs, let's look at drug use and drug abuse as issues of public
health.' And the United States is still trapped in a 50-year-old view
that this is all about morality."

The report notes that drug abuse appears to be at a lower level in
Canada than in the United States although cocaine abuse is increasing
in some Canadian cities.

It finds the close economic ties between Canada and the United States
"offer many possibilities for drug traffickers."

The report says Europe and North America remain the major markets for
illicit drugs, which are trafficked through countries in Asia, Africa
and Latin America.