Canada GE: Drug Laws Help Only Traffickers,
Prominent Criminal Lawyer Says

SENATOR, FORMER OTTAWA MAYOR FEEL `JUST SAY NO,' JUST DOESN'T WORK

The only thing the world's war on drugs has managed to do is fatten the wallets of a cunning group of drug traffickers, say prominent Canadians who are now asking the United Nations to liberalize drug laws as a preferred anti-narcotics strategy.

``We're spending a huge amount of money on some drugs by criminalizing them and all we seem to be achieving is to create a group of very rich people,'' said Toronto lawyer Clayton Ruby. ``So let's stop and decriminalize some drugs. Marijuana is the obvious one.''

Mr. Ruby is among more than 600 international signatories to a petition that asks for the world's hard line on drugs to be softened. The petition will be presented to the UN General Assembly when it convenes tomorrow for a conference designed to discuss international drug policy.

At the conference, the UN is expected to approve another $4 billion in spending on the global battle against illegal drugs such as cocaine, heroin and marijuana.

Already, anti-drug forces around the world have spent billions on what is regarded as a failure by an international list of dignitaries, authors, academics and politicians. By the UN's own estimates, the additional funding is just a drop in the bucket compared with the $400 billion U.S. a year the illegal drug trade generates worldwide.

Former Ottawa mayor Marion Dewar says the ongoing international drug strategy has been a disappointment and needs a serious overhaul.

``The Americans have spent billions on `Just Say No,' which doesn't work,'' she said. ``Our attitude ( in Canada) is pretty much just the same thing. We're going to make sure that nobody ever takes drugs and yet we're not very good on the nicotine stuff, which is a very serious drug as far as health is concerned.

``If we can open up the laws, get some international standards, then what you start to do is get rid of all the black markets where the fortunes are being made.''

Drug policy reform groups, which co-ordinated the lobby effort, say the global war on drugs has actually compromised human rights and human health, sent needless numbers of people to prisons and caused environmental degradation.

``We're spending huge amounts of money with no return,'' Mr. Ruby said. ``( Prisons) don't successfully take out the hidden mafia. You don't successfully take out the people who are really doing it well. What you wind up getting is those who are at the bottom end who are inadequate and sloppy and careless -- the ones who don't have the resources.''

Liberal Senator Sharon Carstairs, another signatory to the petition, agrees the drug problem should be treated as a public health issue rather than a criminal matter.

``In this country alone we spend millions of dollars on prosecuting people for simple possession of marijuana, when I think that money would be far more usefully spent trying to convince young people that drugs are not the way they should be going,'' she said.

Meanwhile, a growing sector of Canada's population is being treated as if they were criminals rather than the victims.

``If we could start treating our people who are addicts and recognizing that it is a health issue, we'd be doing a lot more than incarcerating them,'' Ms. Dewar added.

Despite the increasing momentum to change drug strategies to cope with these realities, neither the public nor the politicians are entirely convinced that liberalization is the way to go.

``It's going to take political will,'' Mrs. Carstairs said. ``Unfortunately, in my view, under the previous administration we joined in the so-called war on drugs. We made certain commitments to the United States, which I think has tied our hands.''

Former U.S. president Ronald Reagan was largely responsible for driving the prohibition on drugs in the 1980s. Former prime minister Brian Mulroney joined Mr. Reagan's crusade and, subsequently, Canadian political parties have largely avoided the issue of decriminalization.

In 1996, Mrs. Carstairs chaired a Senate committee that examined a bill -- later passed -- that significantly expanded the reach of Canada's drug laws and continues Canada's heavy reliance on criminal prohibition.

``We didn't feel at that time that we could amend the bill and decriminalize the use of marijuana. But we did file a report in the Senate at that time, which indicated that the majority of us believed that the government should seriously consider the decriminalization of marijuana.''

Current leaders in both Canada and the U.S. -- having inherited a powerful anti-drug sentiment -- have maintained the status quo.

``What's going to be very difficult for both of them is to change the direction of that legacy,'' Mrs. Carstairs said.

International Signatories

Here are a selection of prominent world figures who have signed the petition asking the UN to work toward liberalized drug laws:

Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Nobel Laureate ( Peace)

Peter Baume, Former Cabinet Minister and Chancellor of the Australian National University

Lidya Gueiler Tejada, Former President of Bolivia

Belisario Betancur, Former President of Columbia

Oscar Arias, Nobel Laureate ( Peace) and Former President of Costa Rica

Erling Olsen, Former Minister of Justice, Denmark

Michele Barzach, Former Minister of Health, France

Sabine Leutheuser-Schnarrenberger, Former Justice Minister, Germany

Haim Cohn, Former Deputy President of the Israel Supreme Court

Monica Bettoni-Brandani, Undersecretary of State for Health, Italy

Andreas van Agt, Former Prime Minister of the Netherlands

Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, Former President of Nicaragua

Nicolaus Bloembergen, Nobel Laureate, ( Physics)

Walter Cronkite, Broadcaster, the United States

Joycelyn Elders, Former U.S. Surgeon General

Ahmet Ertegun, Chairman, Atlantic Records

Milton Friedman, Senior Research Fellow, Stanford University

Ira Glasser, Executive Director, The American Civil Liberties Union

Patrick Murphy, Former Police Commissioner of New York City

George Soros, Chairman, Soros Fund Management

Anita Roddick, Founder of the Body Shop

Edward Ellison, Retired Head of Scotland Yard Drug Squad

George Papandreou, Alternate Foriegn Minister of Greece

Jesus Silva Herzog, Former Mexican Ambassador to the United States

Stanley Crossick, Chairman of the European Policy Centre in Belgium

Willie Brown, mayor of San Francisco

Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women's Health Coalition

Simon Alberto Consalvi, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs for Venezuela

Allan Wagner, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs for Peru.

Martin Short, author, Britain