'WAR ON DRUGS' NOT WORKING

2008 UN'S TARGETED GOAL FOR ERADICATION OF ELICIT DRUGS

UNITED NATIONS -- Revenue Minister Herb Dhaliwal admits the ongoing "war on
drugs" is not working and says the world must find new methods of
short-circuiting the industry that is wrecking havoc on societies rich and
poor around the world.

"I think everybody recognizes that dealing with the supply side of it hasn't
worked, isn't going to work and we need new bold initiatives," he told
Southam News.

"That's why we've been seeing at this conference that there is a view that
we have to work at the demand reduction side."

HEADS CANADIAN DELEGATION

Dhaliwal is heading the Canadian delegation at a special three-day United
Nations conference on drugs, which is targeting 2008 as the goal for global
eradication of ilicit drugs. A similar conference eight years ago declared
the '90s the decade against drugs and established 1995 as the year for
making the world drug-free.

Dhaliwal says there has been recognition that drugs are a global problem
that cannot be dealt with by any one country alone and further recognition,
particulary by the United States, that the world cannot be divided into
drug-consuming and drug-producing nations.

He pointed to the new Canada Drug Strategy put forward last month as an
example of Canada's "balanced approach" between cutting supply and reducing
demand through treatment and programs such as needle exchanges, which he
says will save taxpayers money and improve Canadian society.

"Prevention, treatment, rehabilitation in the long term will be a lot
cheaper because once people get into the justice system it becomes very
expensive. It costs about $40,000 a year to have someone incarcerated so our
government is very much committed to prevention and rehabilitation and
treatment.

"We have to start slowly and see if we're getting good results and do
re-evaluations."

However, calls to decriminalize marijuana by various prominent Canadians,
including NDP Leader Alexa McDonough and Liberal Senator Sharon Carstairs,
are going too far, he says.

QUESTION OF DECRIMINALIZATION

"The question becomes, if you decriminalize marijuana, (will) people start
with a soft drug and move to the high drug? In fact, in the longest term,
will you have a bigger problem?

"It's something very difficult to predict. But our whole movement is to
reduce the use of drugs. Period."

The Canadian Drug Strategy put the costs of drug and alcohol abuse to
Canadian society in 1992 at $8.89 billion but said drugs accounted for only
15 per cent of that.

Dhaliwal says Canada will step up enforcement procedures by strengthening
laws to discourage money laundering. He says a new bill is in the works that
will require all financial transactions in excess of $10,000 to be reported
to Revenue Canada.

As well, new technology and improved intelligence operations are being
brought into play in the war against drug smugglers.

Revenue Canada announced Monday that Vancouver customs officers had seized
150 kilograms of cocaine hidden in false bottoms of containers in a
German-registered ship. Officials put the street value of the seizures at
$30 million.

Dhaliwal says customs officers have seized drugs with a street value of $201
million since the beginning of this year and have made 32,000 drug seizures
with a street value of $6.5 billion since 1987.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett