DRUG PLAN WASTE OF RESOURCES, CITY TOLD

More Drug Users Will Come Here, U.S. Official Warns

American drug czar John Walters says Vancouver's proposed safe-injection
sites for drug users are a waste of resources that should go to helping
addicts get clean.

And, he told reporters after a speech to the Vancouver Board of Trade
Wednesday, any policy that makes life easier for drug users will only
attract more drug users.

Walters' speech on America's drug policy was punctuated by frequent booing
and heckling from a table of people that included B.C. Marijuana Party
leader Marc Emery.

Walters conceded that safe-injection sites might save some lives.

"They may save lives, certainly, if you have people who overdose," said
Walters, who was accompanied by a heavy contingent of security.

"From my point of view, why not save people from the fatal disease of
addiction and not just from the fatal opportunity for an overdose at some
point in time? Use the resources -- they're always going to be scarce -- to
make people well, to reintegrate them into society."

He said he doesn't even buy the argument that safe-injection sites reduce
the spread of disease.

"Even the best sites, the usual safe-injection site argument is for the
prevention of hepatitis and HIV transmission, but the rates of conversion
[to illness] in the studies that have been best in these areas still have
many times the number of people converting than those who get effective
treatment. Again, hepatitis and HIV are deadly diseases. So is drug
addiction. We want to save people from the underlying condition that is
deadly."

Current Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen and mayor-elect Larry Campbell, who
attended the speech at the Sheraton Wall Centre, both said they didn't
agree with Walters' statements on that issue, although they wholeheartedly
supported his comments about the importance of prevention and treatment.

Walters said he was in B.C. to discuss issues of border security and the
problem of B.C.'s large marijuana industry, estimated at $5-6 billion a
year, with 95 per cent of the drugs going to the United States.

He said he hoped, through his speech, to help Canadians avoid the drug
problems that the U.S. has "paid a bitter price for."

"I'm not telling Canadians what to do. But I'm saying, 'Look at our
experience. Try not to have as many casualties as we do,' " said Walters.

Walters said the most important weapons in the drug crisis, which he said
is increasingly affecting children and teenagers, are prevention and treatment.

And, he said, everyone needs to work on that together.

"Prevention is by everybody's measure, the most humane approach. But this
is a problem that requires social consensus. When that consensus breaks
down, we have more casualties."

Walters said several times that addicts can't help themselves because part
of the disease is denial, so it's up to others to help them.

Addicts' families, he said, "know that denial is part of this disease. We
have to get people to understand that minding your own business and looking
the other way is deadly. We can save lives, we have the technologies and
treatment to save lives."

He also claimed that Baltimore's economic decline and school-failure rate
are due to a move toward a more "harm-reduction" approach to drug use.

Walters focused much of his talk on the dangers of marijuana, which
prompted several verbal exchanges from those at the Marijuana Party table.
They called out, "Lies," while Walters responded, "Shouting people down
doesn't make what you say true," and Odd Squad police officer Toby Hinton
told the hecklers to shut up.

Afterwards, Owen questioned Walters' information that 60 per cent of the
six million drug addicts in the United States are addicted to marijuana and
represent the bulk of people filling up the American drug-treatment system.

Owen said the reason people using marijuana are so prevalent is because the
U.S. is more aggressive in arresting people for simple marijuana possession
and, through the drug-court system, they're forced to choose between jail
or treatment.

Owen said he's confident about what Vancouver is doing in incorporating
harm-reduction measures, like better health treatment for addicts, in its
drug strategy, which already includes prevention, treatment and enforcement.

"We're on a little different course at the moment from the United States,"
he said. "We're satisfied with ours when it gets support from the
provincial government, the federal government, 90 per cent of the public."