From: Jim Rosenfield <[j n r] at [igc.apc.org]>
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Date: 20 Feb 94 09:04 PST
Subject: Interpol backs study of legali

	   INTERPOL HEAD WANTS DRUGS LEGALISATION CONFERENCE

RTw  2/3/94 10:54 AM

    STRASBOURG, France, Feb 3 (Reuter) - The head of the
international police organisation Interpol said on Thursday he was
in favour of a global conference on drugs legalisation.
     "I don't see any problem with talking about the problem of
legalisation," Interpol secretary-general Raymond Kendall told
reporters in the eastern French city of Strasbourg. "Such a
conference must take place."
     Next week, the Strasbourg-based European Parliament will
debate a resolution calling for an international conference on
legalising drugs.
     Kendall, who was in Strasbourg to attend a Council of Europe
ministerial meeting on drugs, said he personally opposed outright
legalisation, but he reiterated his support for decriminalising
the use of drugs.
     "We need administrative procedures so drug addicts can be
     guided to therapy," he said.  The head of the Lyon-based
     Interpol said the world community needed to add muscle to its
     fight
against international drug trafficking now that the threat of an
East-West war was lifted.
     "Resources devoted in the past to the East-West conflict,
especially to intelligence gathering, could be used in the fight
against this new threat," he said.
  REUTER

Copyright 1994 Reuters Information Services, Inc.  All rights
reserved.