JAIL NO ANSWER TO DRUG WOES - GOVERNOR

VANCOUVER - The U.S. war on drugs is a miserable failure, New Mexico
Gov. Gary Johnson said yesterday.

"Where I sit as governor of the state of New Mexico ... half of what
we spend on law enforcement, half of what we spend on the courts, half
of what we spend in the prisons is drug-related," Johnson told a news
conference.

The governor was among leaders from the business and medical
communities and public policy experts at a symposium to explore the
economic case for an integrated approach to Vancouver's drug problems.

The United States arrests 1.6 million people a year for drug-related
crimes, 90% of those for possession only.

Johnson spoke before the Canadian Senate committee that has since
recommended legalizing marijuana use, and believes the decision could
positively impact U.S. drug policy.

The Republican governor said the U.S. should move away from its
current policy by recognizing illegal drugs are a health problem, not
a criminal justice problem.

Johnson said the U.S. can't continue to arrest and incarcerate its way
out of the situation.

"When you start talking about harm-reduction strategies, when you
start talking about legalization, I think there are going to be a lot
of problems and mistakes made in that process," he said.

"But I'm somebody that believes that 90% of the drug problem is
prohibition-related, not use-related, and that's not to discount the
problems with use."

He said the strategy should be to reduce death, disease and crime,
noting that a needle-exchange program in New Mexico had stopped the
rise in HIV and hepatitis C infection rates.

"That ought to be our focus."

But David Brittian, who wrote a report critical of the federal
government's national drug strategy, said Canadians have a superiority
complex on drugs.

He said he found that "leadership and co-ordination by the federal
government is poor.

"It is lacking. It seems to vary between what I would call panic and
indifference."

Brittian said other countries do better, including the United
States.

"You might argue the Americans are doing the wrong thing, as the
governor says, but they certainly do it well.

"They know exactly where they're going, they know exactly what they're
spending, they know exactly what results they've got, they've got
statistics."