CANADA SHOULD STEER CLEAR OF U.S.-STYLE DRUG POLICIES, ACCORDING TO A
NEW YORK PROSECUTOR

VANCOUVER - Governments in Canada should steer completely clear from
adopting or emulating current drug policies in the United States, an
outspoken New York state prosecutor said Tuesday.

"My advice to Canada is stay as completely far away from U.S. drug law
policy as possible," said David Soares, the district attorney for
Albany County in the state of New York. "You [Canada] are headed in
the right direction."

In a blunt and scathing condemnation of his state and country's
ineffective drug war, Soares said lawmakers, judges and prosecutors in
the U.S. know their system is ineffective.

But they support it anyway because it provides law enforcement
officials with lucrative jobs.

The vast majority of people incarcerated as a result of drug laws in
the U.S. are young African-American and Hispanic males, he said after
a speech at the 17th International Conference on the Reduction of
Drug-Related Harm.

Harm reduction has been a movement developed over the past two decades
as a complement to the harsher but ineffective abstinence-only policy.
It recognizes that drug use can't be eliminated and tries to reduce
negative consequences. Soares was elected on a ticket to fight what he
termed "draconian" drug laws that call for long prison sentences for
crimes that in Canada would be considered minor.