CITY COUNCILOR: IT MAY BE TIME TO END WAR ON DRUGS

Boston city councilor Chuck Turner stunned his colleagues yesterday by
suggesting that heroin, cocaine and other drugs be legalized and that
America's war on drugs was harmed by the overthrow of the Taliban. Turner,
of Roxbury, likened anti-drug laws to the failure of Prohibition while
speaking at the weekly council meeting in response to another councilor's
proposal for a hearing into the city's anti- drug strategy.

"We have spent billions on a war on drugs that is not working," Turner
said. "Perhaps we need to end that war. I'm saying we need to look at it
and maybe spend those billions on education and treatment and job training."

Turner claimed heroin in Boston neighborhoods has increased since American
forces ended Taliban rule in Afghanistan in November 2001.

"The Taliban had a stated anti-drug policy, but the Northern Alliance has
returned to growing poppies," Turner said. "So the ally that our government
supports is now growing the plant that leads to heroin."

City Councilor Maureen E. Feeney (Dorchester) said she and other councilors
were stunned at Turner's comment about the Taliban. "Maura Hennigan leaned
over to me and said `Did he say what I think he said?' " Feeney said.

Feeney, who is calling for the hearing, said she agrees with Turner that
the war on drugs has failed, but that she and most other councilors do not
support legalization. "Addiction leads to all kinds of destruction of life,
family and community," Feeney said.

Neighborhood complaints about drugs have escalated in recent months, she
said. "If we don't refocus, we'll be back to where we were 10 years ago,"
Feeney said.