Newsgroups: alt.drugs
From: [m--p--x] at [superior.carleton.ca] (Michel Murphy)
Subject: Legalize it, says Police Chief !
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 05:31:27 GMT

LEGALIZATION FANS,
GOOD NEWS FROM OTTAWA !!!

Brian Ford, Ottawa Police Chief has pronounced himself in favor of
decriminalizing soft drugs. Here's the article that appeared in the
*front page* of the Sunday Edition of the Ottawa Citizen (March 13,
1994). He made the statement at the FBI Academy in Pennsylvania.

[ Anybody has more details on that meeting at the FBI Academy ? ]

Please write or fax Brian Ford to support his views. When you do,
please email me at [m--p--x] at [ccs.carleton.ca] so I can compile how many
persons have written him. I appeal to anyone in Canada, the US, or
anywhere else.

Brian Ford
Police Chief
Ottawa Police Headquarters
474 Elgin St.
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K2P  2J6
Fax: (613) 236-9360

Here's the article:

LEGALIZE SOFT DRUGS, FORD SAYS.
By Carolyn Abraham
Citizen Police Reporter

Ottawa Police Chief Brian Ford wants to see marijuana and hashish 
decriminalized because the war against drugs puts the safety of too 
many people at risk.

"Is it really worth all the people getting hurt over marijuana and 
hashish ?", Ford asked in a Saturday interview.

Ottawa's 51-year-old chief said he would like to see the federal 
government pull "soft drugs" out of the Criminal Code and regulate 
them the way it does alcohol and tobacco. 

The criminal laws, Ford said, do more to increase violence associated 
with drugs than they do to prevent it.

Jim Kingston, executive director of the Canadian Police Association, 
said Saturday he too wants to see drugs decriminalized. The drugs 
squad veteran said all drugs - from weed to cocaine - should not be 
regulated by criminal law.

Kingston's views are not the official position of the association he 
works for.

Kingston made his point earlier this week at an International 
Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm in Toronto. His 
paper was entitled "Can We Ever Effectively Legislate Morality ?"

The government can't legislate sobriety, it can't legislate safe 
sex, and it can't legislate drugs, said Kingston, who called Ford's 
comments courageous and enlightened.

Ford made his comments about decriminalizing soft drugs while 
lamenting "all the grief caused" by an Ottawa-led 1991 drug raid 
in which Vincent Gardner was shot, and later died. There are still 
two unresolved complaints about that joint-forces raid - which 
found only a few grams of marijuana -  which could cost three 
officiers their jobs.

"(Decriminalization has) been on my mind a lot," Ford said, adding 
the Gould Street raid should prompt the community to ask how it 
wants police to wage the fight against drugs. "I think the 
community, or a cross-section of it, is probably ready for it."

But the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police is not. Its 
official position, said executive director Fred Schultz, is to keep
 all illicit drugs in the Criminal Code, though the association is 
considering alternatives.

Ford, who has held the force's top job for just under a year, is no
 stranger to bold moves. Just a week after becoming chief last 
April, he said he would not be opposed to the government 
legalizing prostitution.

(article included a color picture of Brian Ford with the caption:
Brian Ford: "It's not worth it" 
)