SURRENDER IN DRUG WAR URGED

Ex-Trafficker Will Tell Police It's Only Way To Stop The Killing

An ex-drug trafficker warns Edmonton's body count in the cocaine wars will
keep rising until Ottawa becomes the supplier.

Mike Ryan, a former jailbird now selling motivational seminars to Fortune
500 companies, is on the guest list for this week's four-day Canadian
Congress on Criminal Justice in Edmonton, starting this morning.

He said he'll be telling the assembled cops and politicians the only way to
win the war on drugs is to surrender.

"It's got to be decriminalization," he said.

"Canada's losing $5 billion to $10 billion a year south of the border on
illegal drug sales.

"We could be catching some of that revenue and channelling it into help for
addicts."

Ryan, who broke a cocaine addiction while serving a three-year term for
armed robbery in Drumheller in the early '80s, blames his history of
drug-fuelled felonies in Edmonton and elsewhere on the need to bankroll his
$1,000-a-day habit. "The problem with drugs isn't so much the drugs
themselves - it's the violence that comes with the drug trade," he said.

"Violence happens when money gets involved. Money's the real drug."

Ryan said a government-controlled supply of hard drugs like cocaine and
heroin could force addicts into treatment programs, while cutting criminals
out of the business.

"Look at what happened with Prohibition in the 1930s - crime became more and
more violent," he said.

"You've got to get the profit out of the drug trade."

Edmonton's seen a spate of drive-by shootings in recent weeks, some of which
cops have blamed on escalating gang conflict over the cocaine trade.

Last month, an Asian man was killed in a drive-by in the centre of the city,
outside Telus Field.

"You're going to see a lot more killing like that," said Ryan. "It's going
to get worse unless someone does something about it."

The congress is held every two years by the Canadian Criminal Justice
Association, a national body of government and private-sector people in the
justice system.