Pubdate: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB) Copyright: 2002, Canoe Limited Partnership. Contact: http://www.fyiedmonton.com/htdocs/edmsun.shtml Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) 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." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek