Pubdate: Sat, 13 Jan 2001 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2001 The Vancouver Sun Contact: 200 Granville Street, Ste.#1, Vancouver BC V6C 3N3 Fax: (604) 605-2323 Website: http://www.vancouversun.com/ Author: Alan Randell, http://www.mapinc.org/writers/Randell+Alan Cited: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n057/a06.html http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n025/a04.html CLEAN, CHEAP DRUGS ARE BETTER Gerry Marsden is tragically mistaken (Stiffer penalties for traffickers, Letters, Jan. 9). Increasing the sentences meted out to drug dealers will have no effect whatsoever on the amount of illegal drugs sold and consumed in Vancouver. It might lead to more police officers being murdered as dealers become more desperate to escape arrest, but it won't do a thing to reduce the toll exerted on users and non-users alike imposed by our current drug prohibition policies. Allowing users to legally purchase clean, cheap supplies of their drugs of choice at the corner store as tobacco users do, will do more to solve our drug problems than building a hundred detox centres or hiring a million cops. My wife and I lost a son to drugs too. So I have some appreciation for what Mr. Marsden is going through. Furthermore, the death of RCMP Constable Barry Schneider proves that heroin users are able to carry out the responsibilities of a demanding job (Veteran drug-enforcement officer dies of heroin, cocaine overdose, Jan. 5). Some day soon, God willing, the courts will force the federal government to legalize all drugs and fewer users will die as Schneider did and my son did. Alan Randell Victoria - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake