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
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