The drug war has 'failed' says visiting judge

New Zealand is ideally placed to rethink the "huge" international hysteria surrounding drug prohibition, and to take a more rational approach to drug use, retired Canadian judge Jerry Paradis says.

Judge Paradis, who retired as a judge for the Provincial Court of British Columbia in 2003 after nearly 30 years on the bench, was in Dunedin this week as part of a national speaking tour supported by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (Leap).

Leap is an international organisation comprising current and former members of the law enforcement and criminal justice communities who speak out about the failures of existing drug policies.

Judge Paradis, who lives in Vancouver and is an executive board member of Leap, will next week make a presentation to the New Zealand Law Commission's review on drug policy and the law.

The long-running "war against drugs" had failed, with illicit drugs more readily available, and associated violence and deaths rising internationally through the involvement of criminals in drug distribution and supply, he said in an interview.

He noted that 2.2 million people were now imprisoned in the United States, 55% of them through drug convictions.

Of the 1.9 million people arrested in the US in 2005, 775,000 were on drug-related charges, and, of this group, 85% were arrested for drug possession alone, he said.

"Drugs are too important to leave in the hands of criminals. We have to start thinking about a better way of dealing with it," he said.

People had been using mood-altering drugs since ancient times and some would continue to do so.

A new system based on strict licensing of drug sale outlets, as under the New Zealand Sale of Liquor Act, would greatly reduce drug sale profitability and the role of organised crime, while allowing drug safety education to be promoted more effectively, he said.

Mr Paradis gave a public lecture on "Drugs 101: Safety, Health and Human Rights" at the University of Otago on Monday night.

Earlier in the day, his views appeared to find little support at a Dunedin City Council planning and environment committee.

Speaking before the meeting, he told councillors he believed orthodox policies of prohibition of drugs and punishment for offenders had achieved nothing but increased addiction and a huge black market.

Cr Bill Acklin asked why the Government would consider legalising drugs when it was having to put so much effort into steering people away from a legal drug — tobacco.

Mr Paradis said the tobacco issue was a good example of steps society could take with a drug that was not illegal, using social pressure and restrictions.