Pubdate: Sun, 19 Dec 2010 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2010 Greg Harms Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Greg Harms SHOOTING SPREE AND DRUG ADDICTION ARE LINKED Re: Ten wounded in shooting, Dec. 13 Two interesting news items the same day: Another criminal gang shooting spree on the streets with cars racing from the scene and a story about a severe shortage of drug addiction rehab beds. What are citizens to think about options to drug prohibition, which is clearly spiralling out of control? How about we legalize the soft drugs, give out free hard drugs at medical clinics and take 100 per cent of the drug money out of the hands of the organized criminals. The crime rate would, say, drop in half or two-thirds. To address the human sorrow of drug addiction we could redeploy the massive savings in policing costs towards drug rehabilitation facilities. Who would object? Oh ... it's the drug dealers and the policing organizations who top the list against this idea. Greg Harms Vancouver - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake