Canada Headed 'Wrong Way' on Illegal Drugs-Walters
Source: Reuters, 10/09/03

Canada Headed 'Wrong Way' on Illegal Drugs-Walters

Washington -- John Walters, the White House's top drug policymaker, said on Thursday Canada was a blemish in an otherwise successful effort by the United States to cut back illegal drug production in the Western Hemisphere.

"It is the one place in the hemisphere where things are going the wrong way," said Walters, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. He has been an outspoken critic of a proposed Canadian law to ease penalties on marijuana possession.

Speaking before at Washington think tank, the Center for Strategic International Studies, Walters said Canadians who have privately expressed their concerns with the policies of Prime Minister Jean Chretien should stand up and make their objections public.

Walters' comments came just as Parliament was beginning debate on a bill introduced by the Chretien government that would end criminal penalties for possession of 15 grams, about half an ounce, of marijuana.

Walters said Canadian laws were too soft on traffickers and that marijuana shipments south were booming.

"It's their domestic policy in a sovereign country, it's their business," he said. "Shipping poison to the United States is our business."

Walters has previously warned that this law could force a clampdown at the U.S. border, potentially jeopardizing the valuable U.S.-Canadian trading relationship.

The United States is funding a multibillion dollar effort to cut cocaine and heroin shipments from Latin America, mainly by aggressively spraying coca and poppy crops. Mexico has also stepped up its efforts to stop illegal drug trafficking gangs, garnering praise from the White House.

"We're not kidding about this. This is not some kind of culture war with Canada, Walters said. "This is about the center of the drug problem in the United States."

He said marijuana had become a major problem for young Americans, noting that three out of five treatments for illegal drugs in the United States are for marijuana dependency.
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Tim Meehan
currrently in Miramichi, NB
506-627-0167 * tim@ocsarc.org