Pubdate: Sat, 10 Mar 2001
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2001 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact:  1101 Baxter Rd.,Ottawa, Ontario, K2C 3M4
Fax: 613-596-8522
Website: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Author: Mike Blanchfield

POLITICIANS RULE OUT LEGALIZATION OF DRUGS

Legislators from North and South America refuse to debate topic at Ottawa 
summit

North and South American politicians rejected as inappropriate a proposal 
by a Colombian congressman to debate legalization of drugs at an 
international conference hosted by Canada this week.

At a preliminary meeting in Ottawa last September to plan the conference, 
the Colombian politician attempted to get the controversial legalization 
proposal on the agenda of the first meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary 
Forum of the Americas.

But Julio Angel Restrepo, the Colombian opposition congressman, did not 
make the trip to Ottawa for the conference and was not among the 100 
lawmakers from 27 countries to attend this week's inaugural meeting of the 
organization.

"He (Mr. Restrepo) is not here," Colombian Senator Antonio Guerra said 
yesterday in a brief interview. "That topic will not be discussed here. I 
don't think this is a forum to do so."

When Mr. Restrepo called for a legalization debate last fall, he received 
media coverage in Canada and in his country. The Colombian government 
opposes legalization and recently accepted more than $1.3 billion in U.S. 
military aid to fight the war on drugs.

Canadian Alliance MP John Williams, a forum member, agreed that drug 
legalization would have been an inappropriate agenda item.

"It (drug use) destroys societies. Therefore, legalization is not an issue, 
so that debate will not happen here."

The forum has been set up to mirror the Organization of American States, 
but also includes opposition politicians. Delegates hope their conference 
influences some of the discussion by their political leaders at next 
month's Summit of the Americas in Quebec City.

The Ottawa meeting, sponsored by Parliament, was held to discuss a variety 
of topics, including free trade, eradicating poverty, and eliminating crime 
and corruption. Colombia is seen as the problem child of the Americas 
because it supplies most of the world's cocaine.

Mr. Restrepo, who acknowledged he was raising a "taboo" subject, had hoped 
that the forum would allow a debate on drug legalization.

"Legalization could mean depriving drug traffickers of the powerful 
economic ingredient that makes this illicit activity so lucrative," he said 
last fall.

In their meeting yesterday, the delegates also agreed that more had to be 
done by the international community to attack the bank accounts of drug 
barons. But legalization was never mentioned as a way of doing that. 
Instead, the debate was filled with fiery war-on-drugs rhetoric.

"The fight against drug trafficking and money laundering is a universal 
struggle," declared Antonio Posso Delgado of Ecuador.

At the same time, he was also critical of the massive U.S. military aid 
package to Colombia, much of which will be used to directly fight drug 
producers by using helicopters to spray toxic chemicals on coca fields.

Mr. Delgado said the military intervention would destabilize neighbouring 
countries such as his own.

"It could turn South America into a sort of Vietnam. This is not good for 
anyone," he said.

Mr. Guerra defended Colombia's right to "ask for international aid to 
battle against drug trafficking." But he candidly admitted that the 
American aid package is too heavily weighted toward military hardware 
instead of humanitarian aid.

Many observers predict thousands of people will be displaced, causing a 
widespread humanitarian crisis within Colombia once the spraying of fields 
begins.

Mr. Guerra said Colombia simply cannot confront the people responsible for 
its drug problem -- heavily-armed guerrillas and insurgents -- without a 
massive influx of military aid.
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