Pubdate: Mon, 19 May 2003
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2003 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Clifford Krauss

CANADA PARTS WITH U.S. ON DRUGS

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 17 o In the heart of the Downtown 
Eastside, where the back alleys are shooting galleries for heroin junkies 
using dirty needles, a long-abandoned storefront recently reopened with a 
handmade sign out front showing a clenched fist clutching a syringe and the 
words "Safer Injection Site."

In the last three weeks, up to 25 drug users have come here every night to 
shoot heroin and cocaine into their veins. They are supervised by a 
registered nurse, who dispenses fresh needles, swabs, sterile water to cook 
the drugs and advice on how to maintain veins.

The operation is technically illegal but is condoned by the new mayor, 
Larry W. Campbell. He was elected in November by a landslide on a platform 
of more treatment for addicts, more thorough law enforcement and regulated 
injection sites. He has not yet received federal approval to open the 
centers, but this privately financed center is filling the gap.

The injection site, modeled after similar facilities in Australia, Germany, 
Switzerland and the Netherlands, is the only one to operate openly in North 
America.

Its presence is just one sign that Canada's drug policies are moving in a 
direction that diverges sharply from those in the United States o to treat 
addiction more as a medical issue and less as one of law enforcement.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien, in his waning months in office, has said he 
plans to introduce legislation to decriminalize the possession of small 
amounts of marijuana despite strong opposition from the Bush administration.

The government is also planning a research project among small groups of 
heroin addicts in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal to see whether crime and 
health problems can be reduced among hard-core addicts by giving them 
prescriptions to maintain their habit, as has been done in Switzerland.

"Canadians see things differently from Americans," Mr. Campbell, a former 
police officer and city coroner, said in an interview this week. "The 
philosophy here is that the drug problem that we have is a medical problem, 
an addiction no different from gambling."

John P. Walters, the White House national drug control policy director, has 
called the Vancouver proposal for regulated injection sites "immoral" and 
"state-sponsored suicide" but concedes that it is a matter Canadians must 
decide for themselves.

Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Homeland Security secretary, Tom 
Ridge, have told Canadian officials in recent weeks that they are worried 
that a partial decriminalization of marijuana here could increase supplies 
of the drug and exports to the United States. Mr. Walters has said the 
United States may be forced to increase border security, for protection.

"Nobody wants to punish Canada, but we have to take reasonable security 
measures as the threat increases," he said in a telephone interview on 
Thursday. "No country anywhere has reduced penalties without getting more 
drug addiction and more trafficking and all the consequences of that."

Mr. Walters said he learned from Canadian law enforcement officials that 95 
percent of the high-potency marijuana produced in British Columbia, valued 
at $4 billion to $6 billion annually, was being shipped to the United States.

Senior Canadian officials appear to be taking some of the United States' 
concerns into account as they move gradually in a direction that several 
Western European countries have taken in dealing with drug addiction.

Officials have tinkered with recent drafts of the new marijuana 
legislation, to lower the amounts of marijuana that can be possessed with 
no more penalty than the equivalent of a traffic ticket o to 15 grams from 
30 grams, or approximately 20 cigarettes. The officials are also 
considering raising penalties for marijuana traffickers and producers.

The legislation was scheduled to be introduced in the House of Commons on 
Thursday, but officials announced that it still needed work and would be 
delayed for two weeks. A policy dispute over the bill is dividing Mr. 
Chretien's cabinet, with Health Minister Anne McClellan cautioning that 
decriminalization would increase marijuana use o at least in the short term.

But with Mr. Chretien o and the three Liberal Party contenders to succeed 
him in February o staunchly committed to decriminalization, a change in 
marijuana laws that is not entirely to Washington's liking is considered a 
near certainty.

In recent years, Canada has been criticized by officials in the United 
States for legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

Canada has also moved more slowly than the United States has urged it to do 
to regulate precursor chemicals for synthetic drugs, like Ecstasy.

Drug use is also an increasing domestic problem, connected with growing 
homelessness in Canada's largest cities. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police 
has estimated that there are up to 40,000 heroin users among Canada's 30 
million inhabitants. The State Department, in a 2002 narcotics report, 
estimated annual street sales of drugs in Canada at $13 billion.

Researchers and law enforcement officials say drug use is on the rise among 
Canadian youths, but the government's response generally has emphasized 
treatment and education over traditional enforcement crackdowns.

Vancouver, a port where Asian drugs enter the country and a trafficking 
gateway for much of Canada's marijuana production, has one of the most open 
drug subcultures of any city in the Western Hemisphere. The Downtown 
Eastside has become such an eyesore that it was the major issue of last 
year's municipal election and is an impediment to the city's effort to be 
selected as the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

In his campaign, Mr. Campbell promised to install the first of several 
regulated injection sites by Jan. 1. But six months into his term, a clinic 
for supervised intravenous drug use is still facing financing hurdles and 
awaiting regulatory approval from Ottawa.

Mr. Campbell said he was confident that the federal Health Ministry would 
give him the go-ahead in the next couple of weeks, and a nonprofit group 
has already been granted a building permit to get a new site ready.

Mark Townsend, 42, the director of the Portland Hotel Society, the 
nonprofit group, said his organization would proceed with the center even 
if the federal government did not go along. "We want to make sure it is 
inviting, not an eyesore," he said. "It should be easy and inviting. And if 
then they want to talk about detox while they are chilling out, that's great."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart