LITTLE INTEREST IN DRUG DEBATE

There was no moderator, one of three panelists left halfway through
the debate and only two dozen audience members turned up.

But that didn't stop the LEAP debate on drug prohibition Tuesday
night at Matsqui Centennial Auditorium.

There to discuss the issue was retired Vancouver judge Jerry Paradis,
former Vancouver police officer Tony Smith and Chief Constable Ian
Mackenzie of the Abbotsford Police Department.

There appeared to be some confusion over who would moderate the
debate, so local attorney John Conroy stepped in, while also adding
his thoughts to the debate throughout the night.

In his opening comments Paradis said, "There will always be a demand
(for drugs) and that demand will always be met by a supply."

Prohibition establishes a black market, he said, and "keeps prices
artificially high ... attracting organized crime."

Paradis argued prohibition betrays the role government seeks to play
- -- the protector of public health -- by driving drug use and abuse
underground, contributing to death, illness and the spread of disease.

"It is also a serious and unnecessary drain on the resources of
police, prosecutors, courts and corrections," said Paradis.

"Ending prohibition is not giving up. It is nothing to do with
admitting defeat. It is nothing more than recognition that a policy
adopted almost a century ago for all the wrong reasons does not only
fail to yield any results, it has created unintended consequences. It
endangers our children far more than the drugs do."

Veteran Vancouver cop Tony Smith claimed that present policies do not
work, "and if we were to change, the the savings would be enormous."

He cited the experiences in Switzerland, where 50 per cent of heroin
addicts who had daily access to the drug held steady jobs.

Holland, where small amounts of marijuana is sold in coffee shops,
has half the number of users that the U.S. has, he said.

Smith said the money saved from ending prohibition could be used to
ensure that children have happy, healthy homes.

"Today, most of our offenders are cultivated in violent, abusive
homes, which churn out these individuals, with no experience of love
and only seeing the world as a violent and abusive place."

In his contribution to the debate, Chief Mackenzie said, "The time to
end prohibition has not come. Is society ready for that sort of move?
It's the type of step I don't believe you can go back on. I do know,
as a resident of Abbotsford, that this city wouldn't be ready for it.
I don't think so."

After opening comments, the panelists entertained questions put
forward by members of the community. But, when Paradis left, the
debate was thrown open to the audience.

A second debate is scheduled for June 12 at 7 p.m. at Matsqui
Centennial Auditorium.

UCFV criminologist Dr. Darryl Plecas is pencilled in as a panelist.

LEAP spokesperson Mike Smithson was disappointed at the low turn out
Tuesday night.

I know a lot of people worked hard on it," he said.

Smithson is hoping more people will show up on June 12.

"We at LEAP and the reform movement need to continue to find ways to
show people how ending drug prohibition will improve the community," he said.