Pubdate: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 Source: Parklander, The (CN AB) Copyright: 2003 Hinton Parklander Contact: http://www.hintonparklander.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/782 Author: Jim Gates Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) LET'S PUT DRUG DEALERS OUT OF BUSINESS Open Gates: A Column By Jim Gates Hinton Parklander -- I'm going to venture out on a limb with this column and express one of my more radical views. Like most radical views, it's not the ultimate answer that's going to save the world by lunch, but rather one side of a debate that needs more attention in the public arena. Drugs should be decriminalized. Not just marijuana, but all of them - both the soft and hard drugs. I believe this to be the best way reduce drug use and drug-related crime and even fight international terrorism. When I say drugs should be decriminalized, I do not mean that drug traffickers could then open legitimate store fronts down on Switzer Drive and erect bill boards depicting youthful people with pills on their out-stretched tongues, accompanied by a caption that reads, 'I take minute-meth for the best long-lasting high.' For my ideal drug reduction strategy to work, drugs need to be monopolistically distributed by the federal government, and not for a profit. Most crime is drug-related and every organized crime ring is drug based. Even in Hinton, most people commit break and enters and thefts so they can get money to buy drugs. According to statistics from the office of the Solicitor General of Canada, the street value of the drug trade in Canada is $18 billion annually. The federal government developed its own strategy for crippling this lucrative industry. Over the next five years we will spent an additional $245 million in law enforcement targeting the upper levels of the drug trade, disrupting organized crime and seizing the proceeds of crime. I hate to break it to Ottawa, but for every crime ring it destroys, there is another already trying to take its place. Gangs are lining up to push their product like brokers on Wall Street fighting to sell plummeting World Com shares. Canada could easily take the entire industry out of the hands of criminals. Crime rings could not compete with Canada if the country was willing to distribute a product with no intention of turning a profit. Yet, Canada would profit. Thousands of drug producers, warehousers and pushers would have to find legitimate sources of income. Only so many could turn to racketeering, high-tech cheque fraud and dumping toxic waste. Billions of dollars are lost from the Canadian economy due to lost productivity from people making their money in drug markets. The real question is, would more people do drugs if there were no criminal consequences for doing them? I don't think so. I don't do drugs - because they turn people into jittery, irritable half-wits with little to no social skills and even less reasoning ability. There's no way I would do drugs just because I wouldn't go to jail for it. Many people first experiment with drugs when they are teens. Right now, it is easier for a teen to buy meth on the street than it is for them to get their hands on a bottle of Crown Royal. If drugs could be purchased from a regulated store, and if there were serious penalties for adults buying drugs for minors, less teens could do drugs, even if they wanted to. And as for terrorism, it's no secret that the illegal drug trade funds terrorism. US president George Bush said it himself: "It's so important for Americans to know that the traffic in drugs finances the work of terror, sustaining terrorists, that terrorists use drug profits to fund their cells to commit acts of murder. If you quit drugs, you join the fight against terror in America." The set of laws which govern drugs is called the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. Canada should either change the Act's name to the Out-of-control Drugs and Substances Act, or start doing what the name implies - controlling the drugs and substances in Canada. - --- MAP posted-by: Thunder