Pubdate: Thu, 20 Jun 2013
Source: Monday Magazine (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Monday Publications
Contact: http://mondaymag.com/contact/
Website: http://www.mondaymag.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1150
Author: Simon Nattrass

DRUG 'BUST' ONLY MOVES BUYERS AROUND

It was William S. Burroughs, beat author and self-professed morphine
addict, who said it best - "If we wish to annihilate the junk pyramid,
we must start with the bottom of the pyramid: the addict in the
street, and stop tilting quixotically for the 'higher ups' so called,
all of whom are immediately replaceable."

Burroughs was arguing for the need to cure The Junk Sickness -
addiction, rather than endlessly picking off mid-level drug dealers
whose customers will simply go elsewhere to fill their need.
Unfortunately, it seems like no one with the Victoria Police Force or
the province's gang squad has read the 1991 edition of Naked Lunch.

Last week, I wrote about the harassment of harm reduction service 
providers by officers with the VicPD. Volumes could be written on the 
continuing harassment of members of the street community, which have 
been thoroughly detailed in the Vancouver Island Public Interest 
Research Group's ever-relevant report Out of Sight: Policing Poverty in 
Victoria. According to the report, "the existing marginalization, 
vulnerability and stigmatization that street-involved people face in 
their lives may be further entrenched when they are ticketed or charged 
for minor infractions." Enforcement, not solutions seems to be the 
approach at any level of the War on Drugs.

Recent weeks saw two major police busts. The first, carried out by
B.C.'s Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, involved two men in
Langford in possession of large quantities of cocaine, GHB, pot, meth
and 9mm ammunition. The second occurred at The Loft, a downtown art
gallery and gathering space, and yielded pot, moonshine, and - judging
by the photo provided by VicPD - a negligible amount of several other
drugs.

While the first two admittedly don't sound like the type of people
you'd want to run into in a dark alleyway, Loft owner Chris Parent
falls short of playing the heartless thug created for media coverage
of the bust. In a recent interview, Parent was soft-spoken and polite.
He didn't talk about gun fights or pushing meth to teenage kids - his
stories were about seeing artists' faces light up when they sold their
first piece and giving street-involved friends a place to crash.

"We were using the moonshine for tinctures," mentions Parent, listing
off a dozen or so herbs that he kept around the gallery.

The alleged marijuana trade at Parent's gallery would have had little
impact on a region and a province already known for its pot-loving
populace. According to police, shutting down The Loft "will put a dent
in downtown drug trade as well as the disorder we are working hard to
end in the area," but just ask a dealer in another area how they're
enjoying their new clients.
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