CANADA PARTS WITH U.S. ON DRUGS

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 17 o In the heart of the Downtown
Eastside, where the back alleys are shooting galleries for heroin junkies
using dirty needles, a long-abandoned storefront recently reopened with a
handmade sign out front showing a clenched fist clutching a syringe and the
words "Safer Injection Site."

In the last three weeks, up to 25 drug users have come here every night to
shoot heroin and cocaine into their veins. They are supervised by a
registered nurse, who dispenses fresh needles, swabs, sterile water to cook
the drugs and advice on how to maintain veins.

The operation is technically illegal but is condoned by the new mayor,
Larry W. Campbell. He was elected in November by a landslide on a platform
of more treatment for addicts, more thorough law enforcement and regulated
injection sites. He has not yet received federal approval to open the
centers, but this privately financed center is filling the gap.

The injection site, modeled after similar facilities in Australia, Germany,
Switzerland and the Netherlands, is the only one to operate openly in North
America.

Its presence is just one sign that Canada's drug policies are moving in a
direction that diverges sharply from those in the United States o to treat
addiction more as a medical issue and less as one of law enforcement.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien, in his waning months in office, has said he
plans to introduce legislation to decriminalize the possession of small
amounts of marijuana despite strong opposition from the Bush administration.

The government is also planning a research project among small groups of
heroin addicts in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal to see whether crime and
health problems can be reduced among hard-core addicts by giving them
prescriptions to maintain their habit, as has been done in Switzerland.

"Canadians see things differently from Americans," Mr. Campbell, a former
police officer and city coroner, said in an interview this week. "The
philosophy here is that the drug problem that we have is a medical problem,
an addiction no different from gambling."

John P. Walters, the White House national drug control policy director, has
called the Vancouver proposal for regulated injection sites "immoral" and
"state-sponsored suicide" but concedes that it is a matter Canadians must
decide for themselves.

Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Homeland Security secretary, Tom
Ridge, have told Canadian officials in recent weeks that they are worried
that a partial decriminalization of marijuana here could increase supplies
of the drug and exports to the United States. Mr. Walters has said the
United States may be forced to increase border security, for protection.

"Nobody wants to punish Canada, but we have to take reasonable security
measures as the threat increases," he said in a telephone interview on
Thursday. "No country anywhere has reduced penalties without getting more
drug addiction and more trafficking and all the consequences of that."

Mr. Walters said he learned from Canadian law enforcement officials that 95
percent of the high-potency marijuana produced in British Columbia, valued
at $4 billion to $6 billion annually, was being shipped to the United States.

Senior Canadian officials appear to be taking some of the United States'
concerns into account as they move gradually in a direction that several
Western European countries have taken in dealing with drug addiction.

Officials have tinkered with recent drafts of the new marijuana
legislation, to lower the amounts of marijuana that can be possessed with
no more penalty than the equivalent of a traffic ticket o to 15 grams from
30 grams, or approximately 20 cigarettes. The officials are also
considering raising penalties for marijuana traffickers and producers.

The legislation was scheduled to be introduced in the House of Commons on
Thursday, but officials announced that it still needed work and would be
delayed for two weeks. A policy dispute over the bill is dividing Mr.
Chretien's cabinet, with Health Minister Anne McClellan cautioning that
decriminalization would increase marijuana use o at least in the short term.

But with Mr. Chretien o and the three Liberal Party contenders to succeed
him in February o staunchly committed to decriminalization, a change in
marijuana laws that is not entirely to Washington's liking is considered a
near certainty.

In recent years, Canada has been criticized by officials in the United
States for legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

Canada has also moved more slowly than the United States has urged it to do
to regulate precursor chemicals for synthetic drugs, like Ecstasy.

Drug use is also an increasing domestic problem, connected with growing
homelessness in Canada's largest cities. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police
has estimated that there are up to 40,000 heroin users among Canada's 30
million inhabitants. The State Department, in a 2002 narcotics report,
estimated annual street sales of drugs in Canada at $13 billion.

Researchers and law enforcement officials say drug use is on the rise among
Canadian youths, but the government's response generally has emphasized
treatment and education over traditional enforcement crackdowns.

Vancouver, a port where Asian drugs enter the country and a trafficking
gateway for much of Canada's marijuana production, has one of the most open
drug subcultures of any city in the Western Hemisphere. The Downtown
Eastside has become such an eyesore that it was the major issue of last
year's municipal election and is an impediment to the city's effort to be
selected as the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

In his campaign, Mr. Campbell promised to install the first of several
regulated injection sites by Jan. 1. But six months into his term, a clinic
for supervised intravenous drug use is still facing financing hurdles and
awaiting regulatory approval from Ottawa.

Mr. Campbell said he was confident that the federal Health Ministry would
give him the go-ahead in the next couple of weeks, and a nonprofit group
has already been granted a building permit to get a new site ready.

Mark Townsend, 42, the director of the Portland Hotel Society, the
nonprofit group, said his organization would proceed with the center even
if the federal government did not go along. "We want to make sure it is
inviting, not an eyesore," he said. "It should be easy and inviting. And if
then they want to talk about detox while they are chilling out, that's great."