Pubdate: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB) Copyright: 2003 Winnipeg Free Press Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502 Author: Chris Buors DRUG-TRADE BATTLE A MISGUIDED CRUSADE Re: New anti-gang unit will battle drug trade. Justice Minister Gord Mackintosh might just as well announce that he is going to war on lust because that is what doing battle with the drug trade amounts to. Trillions of dollars of public funds have been spent on this misguided moral crusade already and I can think of no greater example of poetic justice than to have the Hells Angels arise to serve the black market. George Orwell could not have thought of a better moniker for an example of back draft. The police, we have been told, have targeted "the big players" for the last 40 years with absolutely no results other than costing the taxpayers about a trillion dollars on the make-work projects loved by law enforcement. The police look like heroes chasing evil drug dealers from one end of town to the other, never accomplishing their stated goals since sending one "big player" to jail merely opens the marketplace for the next big player. For example, we were all led to understand that Pablo Escobar was the cause of all the world's problems. The powers that be hunted him down and shot him to death in the 1980s, making room for the Cali Cartel to take control. Well, the Cali Cartel has long since come and gone and still drugs got cheaper and more plentiful in Canada and the United States. The Winnipeg police, RCMP, the provincial justice minister and most Canadians understand this is all an exercise in futility, but it sure makes good headlines to make it seem as if the authorities are doing "something." Moral righteousness is expensive for police and accomplishes little other than ruining the lives of otherwise law-abiding citizens. The law is not the proper instrument to solve social and moral problems. The only results other than changing the names of the players will be to breed even more disrespect for the law than there already is into another generation of Canadians. CHRIS BUORS Winnipeg - --- MAP posted-by: Beth