Pubdate: Wed, 22 Nov 2006
Source: Salmon Arm Observer (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 Salmon Arm Observer
Contact:  http://www.saobserver.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1407
Author: Tom Fletcher

HOW TO CUT CRIME? LEGALIZE DRUGS

VICTORIA - Last week's column touched on crime rates  around the
province, which the B.C. government tracks  by health region.

If you look at violent crime, serious property crime  and non-cannabis
drug crime, the safest place to live  in B.C. is Vancouver Island.
Next best is the Interior  region, which encompasses the Kootenays,
Okanagan and  Cariboo. And the highest serious crime rates are in
Vancouver Coastal, which includes Vancouver, Richmond,  the North
Shore and Sunshine Coast.

The good news is that the rate of serious crime has  been going down
in most parts of B.C., the exception  being the North, where serious
crime went up by more  than eight per cent from 2001 to 2004.

The bad news, as I'm reminded by a new discussion paper  just released
by the B.C. Progress Board, is that  despite improvements in recent
years, B.C. still ranks  in the top third of Canadian provinces in all
  categories of major crime.

The discussion paper, prepared by Simon Fraser  University criminology
professors Robert Gordon and  Bryan Kinney, contains some provocative
suggestions.  When it comes to illegal drugs, for example, the
professors conclude that B.C. has only three choices:

1. Lobby the federal government to legalize the drug  trade,
controlling it as tobacco and alcohol are  regulated today.

2. Eliminate the organized criminal drug trade by way  of a major
expenditure in new police teams, legislation  targeting money
laundering and proceeds of crime,  increased penalties and
construction of new jails.

3. Combine options one and two, with a crackdown on  organized crime
followed by a phased-in  decriminalization and legalization.

Of course the Conservative government will embrace  legalization about
the same time Hell opens for public  skating.

Stephen Harper is reputed to be a libertarian at heart,  but his
justice and public safety posse, Vic Teows and  Stock Day, are
hang-'em high "social conservatives" who  were appointed to play to
the party's older support  base, and would likely only support
increased drug  penalties.

The criminologists argue that legalizing drugs isn't  likely to
increase demand much more. If people want  drugs in today's society
they will find a way to get  them, or manufacture even worse
substitutes like  crystal meth.

Nearly all the street crime, the car and house  break-ins that
ordinary people are all too familiar  with, is perpetrated in the
pursuit of drugs. As for  violent crime, if you take away the
drug-related  shootings and stabbings, you're left mainly with crimes
of passion that are themselves so often committed in a  fog of
intoxication.

The report warns that there is a fourth option - to  maintain the
status quo.

For B.C. that means continuing to have Canada's most  lenient courts,
which combines with a relatively benign  climate to make B.C. the
destination of choice for  Canada's sophisticated criminals.

As things stand, B.C. currently has twice the rate of  drug crime as
any other province. And since  legalization is currently not a viable
option  politically, the practical choice would be to increase
sentences for major drug crime.
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MAP posted-by: Derek