DECRIMINALIZE STREET DRUGS, SPEAKERS URGE

VANCOUVER (CP) - Decriminalizing street drugs is the only way to address
drug epidemics, a city police officer and many other speakers told a
conference Tuesday.

Present drug laws are making drug dealers rich and leaving addicts to die
on the streets, speakers told the Fraser Institute forum, Sensible
Solutions to the Urban Drug Problem.

Decriminalizing some or all drugs for medicinal or recreational use would
help addicts and free up police to chase dealers, who are the real
criminals, said speakers at the one-day meeting.

Const. Gil Puder, a 16-year member of the Vancouver police force, felt so
strongly about the topic he ignored a written order from police chief Bruce
Chambers that he not to appear unless he changed the material in his
presentation.

Puder said decided to go ahead with the speech because he didn't want to
compromise his beliefs, but erased "Vancouver police department" from his
name tag to emphasize his views were his own and not those of his employer.

Chambers said he was disappointed with Puder but refused to discuss
publicly any disciplinary actions the constable could be facing.

"I am concerned about the accuracy and appropriateness of the speech, that
it didn't meet the standards of the police department," Chambers said,
declining to elaborate.

Former deputy police chief Ken Higgins, when he was still with Vancouver
police last year, also called for decriminalization of narcotics possession.

Some police drug experts use "smear tactics and conjecture" in anti-drug
speeches to school children, Puder said.

Police are supporting "the black market cash cow for criminals" by not
endorsing a lawful drug supply, he said.

The first change in the system should be the legalization of marijuana and
the decriminalization of heroin and opiates for medicinal purposes, Puder
said.

"Cocaine and chemical drugs might then be critically studied on their own
merits," he said.

Puder called for a controlled drug supply accompanied by health, education
and economic programs.

A lawyer with the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy said his Ottawa-based
group supports making it legal for adults to use and share small quantities
of any drug, to cultivate marijuana, and to use heroin for medicinal
purposes.

Prohibition has not stopped the use of drugs in modern societies such as
Vancouver, which has the highest rate of HIV-infection among intravenous
drug users in the Western world, said Eugene Oscapella.