Pubdate: Fri, 15 Feb 2002
Source: Daily Item (PA)
Copyright: 2002 The Daily Item
Contact:  http://www.dailyitem.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1045

WAR ON DRUGS

Demand Keeps Drug Trade Alive

Citizens should cheer the law-enforcement efforts aimed at removing 
illegal drugs from our streets, sidewalks and homes.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Mike Fisher, for example, recently 
announced the breakup of a suspected methamphetamine ring that 
covered Montour, Northumberland, Columbia and Schuylkill counties.

The charges against four men implicated by police have not been 
proved, but the arrest sparks some disturbing questions.

If a gang of bathtub chemists can make $4 million selling "meth" in 
rural Central Pennsylvania, that must mean there are many customers 
for the illegal - and dangerous - stimulant. Officials say the 
investigation is continuing and may net other suspects. But will the 
arrests of dealers really get to the heart of the issue?

The problem really is not with dealers, although such harmful 
criminal activities should be stopped. The first rules of economics 
apply to the drug trade as much - and maybe more so - than in 
legitimate and well-regulated businesses. There must be a demand for 
a product to justify the supply.

Police forces focus on the supply side for many practical reasons. 
Dealers are more centralized, easier to prosecute and present "high- 
value" targets. Users can be anywhere and, judging by the lucrative 
trade, probably are just about everywhere. The legal system does not 
treat users on the same level as dealers, giving law enforcement less 
incentive to attack the huge, though scattered, demand side.

So what is to be done to combat the problem?

Police should be considered the last resort when it comes to stopping 
drug abuse.

Before a drug arrest can be made, every other social system had to 
have failed. Families, neighborhoods, communities, schools and 
health- care facilities all have a role to play in reducing abuse.

Police are there for backup. Everyone else is in the front lines.
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MAP posted-by: Josh