AXWORTHY LAUNCHES DIALOGUE ON DRUGS

OTTAWA, Jan. 8 (UPI) - Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy says the
problem of narcotic drug abuse in the Americas ``will only be solved by
moving beyond legal approaches and viewing them from a broad human
perspective.''

Speaking in Jamaica today, Axworthy said Canada is launching a dialogue
among the hemisphere's foreign ministers to address the impact of illicit
drugs on the region's societies.

The Foreign Affairs department in Ottawa quote him as saying, ``Drug abuse
in the Americas is intimately linked to poverty, urban decay and criminal
elements, and threatens democratic development, sound economic management,
and even relations between states.''

The Canadian minister, who met with Jamaican Prime Minister Percival
Patterson, is set to discuss his drug strategy in the next few days with
government leaders in Mexico and Nicaragua.

He is calling for a broad dialogue on the issue among foreign ministers of
the region, who are to discuss it in a meeting later this year.

Officials from Canada's Foreign Affairs department are set to consult with
foreign ministers of the region over the next few months, ahead of the
foreign ministers' meeting.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien launched an initiative to form a dialogue group
among the foreign ministers when he attended the 1998 Summit of the Americas
in Santiago, Chile.

Canada is linking the problem of illicit drugs with the proliferation of
small arms among criminal gangs.

Axworthy is spearheading a move to have armed forces in industrialized
nations destroy small arms that become outdated, rather than allow them to
be exported and fall into the wrong hands.

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