CANADA SPLITS WITH U.S. ON DRUGS

VANCOUVER, British Columbia In the heart of 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 past three weeks, as many as 25 drug users have come here every
night to shoot heroin and cocaine. 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 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
sites, but this privately financed center has begun operating to fill the gap.

The center, modeled after those in Australia, Germany, Switzerland and the
Netherlands, is thought to be the only one to operate openly in North
America. Its presence is just one sign that drug policies in Canada are
moving in a direction that differs sharply from those in the United States
- - 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 also plans research 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," Campbell, a former
police officer and city coroner, said in an interview last week. "The
philosophy here is that the drug problem that we have is a medical problem,
an addiction no different from gambling."

John Walters, the U.S. drug control policy director, has called injection
sites "immoral" and "state-sponsored suicide," but he conceded that
Canadians must decide the matter.

Attorney General John Ashcroft and the secretary of the Department of
Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, told Canadian officials recently that a
partial decriminalization of marijuana in Canada could increase supplies
and smuggling into the United States. Walters has said the United States
might 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 Thursday. "No country anywhere
has reduced penalties without getting more drug addiction and more
trafficking and all the consequences of that."

Walters said that Canadian law enforcement officials had told him that 95
percent of the high-potency marijuana produced in British Columbia, valued
at $4 billion ($5.48 billion Canadian) to $6 billion annually, was being
illegally shipped to the United States. Senior Canadian officials appear to
be taking some U.S. concerns into account as they move gradually in a
direction that several Western European countries have taken.

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 - to 15 grams (half
an ounce) from 30 grams, or about 20 cigarettes. They said they were
considering raising penalties for marijuana traffickers and producers.

The bill was to be introduced in the Canadian House of Commons on Thursday,
but officials said it needed work and would be delayed for two weeks. A
dispute over the bill is dividing Chretien's cabinet, with the health
minister cautioning that decriminalization would increase marijuana use -
at least in the short term.

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

Canada has been criticized by the United States for legalizing marijuana
for medical purposes. Canada has also moved more slowly than the United
States wants to regulate precursor chemicals for synthetic drugs.

Drug use is also an increasing domestic problem, connected with growing
homelessness in Canada's largest cities. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police
estimated that there are as many as 40,000 heroin users among Canada's 30
million residents. Last year, the State Department estimated annual street
sales of drugs in Canada at $13 billion.

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