OTTAWA URGED TO LEGALIZE, REGULATE ILLICIT DRUGS

VANCOUVER -- The explosion of gang violence on Vancouver streets
could be stopped with the legalization and regulation of psychoactive
drugs such as heroin, cocaine and marijuana, says public health
professor Richard Mathias, who speaks for the Health Officers Council
of British Columbia.

"Anyone who is a capitalist understands, for really big rewards,
you've got to be prepared to take really big risks," Prof. Mathias
said yesterday in an interview. "From the gang perspective, the
rewards are immense. So they are ready to take a lot of risk and do a
lot of things that we would not accept, because the rewards are so great."

Prof. Mathias drew a parallel between the rash of recent shootings in
Metro Vancouver and the gangland shooting of seven men on St.
Valentine's Day, 1929, in Chicago. The manufacture, sale and
transportation of liquor was illegal in the United States from 1920
to 1933. Gangster Al Capone was widely believed to be responsible for
the killings, although he was never charged with the crime.

Prof. Mathias believes a public-health approach could reduce the harm
caused by drugs, wipe out much of the power of criminal gangs
fighting over turf and help resuscitate neighbourhoods such as
Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. "Just regulate them [the drugs]," he said.

Donald MacPherson, Vancouver's drug policy co-ordinator, said the
current system for delivering drugs such as heroin and cocaine causes
considerably more harm than the drugs themselves.

"If I am a heroin user, I do not know the dosage or purity," he said
in an interview. "You don't let people stand on the corner and make
white bread and sell it unless they have been regulated. But these
drugs are totally unregulated. The only regulated people [in the
system] are organized criminals."

Mr. MacPherson said authorities should "at least open up the
discussion" on the feasibility of regulating drugs.

"Why should we leave it to organized crime to regulate these drugs?
Let's talk about it. We may not have an answer at this moment, but
there seems to be a prohibition on even talking about the issue," Mr.
MacPherson said.

"Drugs are everywhere. We need to regulate and control them better."

The problems resulting from drugs are among the key issues driving
much of the death, despair and crime in the Downtown Eastside, he
said. But he cautioned that legalizing and regulating drugs will not
solve all the problems, which can be dealt with only through "a
comprehensive approach."

The remarks of Prof. Mathias and Mr. MacPherson calling for changes
in federal drug laws come as the province's medical health officers
endorsed a resolution asking all health authorities to develop
supervised injection sites as an integrated part of health-care
services across the province.