Pubdate: Thu, 24 Jul 2014
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2014 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.ottawasun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://www.ottawasun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
Author: John Robson
Page: 17

TIME TO REVISIT PROHIBITION?

Ottawa has a problem with guns and gangs. Several problems actually.
But the biggest one, as usual, is conceptual, because if you don't
realize what you're doing wrong you can't change it.

On the surface our problem is a spate of people being shot in the legs
in public housing. The victims then "refuse to cooperate with the
police," sociology-speak for "they won't tell the cops who did it."

They know, of course. This is drug trade violence and they are shot by
partner-competitors when deals go bad or over turf. But they won't
talk partly because they are more afraid of their rivals than of
polite society and partly because they are deeply alienated from
polite society.

So far so bad. Now what shall we do?

One obvious measure is to ban handguns. Admittedly they are already
illegal and a salient feature of criminals is they don't obey the law.
Nevertheless it's Olivia Chow's solution to Toronto's considerably
more serious gun violence even though (a) the people using handguns
there are already breaking the law just by owning them; (b) city
council did ask Parliament to re-ban them in 2008; and (c) Chicago and
Washington D.C. long had handgun bans and hideous rates of handgun
violence.

Another obvious measure is to "reach out to the community." If
sociologists with uniforms and sidearms study the root causes, tell
people it's naughty to shoot other drug dealers in the leg, and set up
midnight basketball or something, the problem will turn its hat
around, pull its pants up and get a straight job.

There are two other obvious things we can do, so obvious we rarely
notice they are choices. We can maintain Prohibition on virtually all
psychoactive drugs except alcohol, caffeine and tranquilizers (even
nicotine is being driven underground). And we can maintain a lavish
welfare state to trap people into dependency.

Occasionally a voice is heard crying in the wackiness that the first
two policies aren't fixing the problem because they don't address the
root causes and the other two aren't fixing it because they are the
root causes. Besides, if the current approach isn't working we need
something new, even in Canada, where we hate to upset things with
fresh, bold thinking.

Fundamentally I'm against drug prohibition for adults. First, we must
all work out our own salvation in fear and trembling. Second, as with
prostitution, if I have no right in a state of nature to prevent you
smoking pot I can't delegate that authority to the state.

I realize some people don't agree, and think they should be able to
belt you with a nightstick if you like different drugs than them.
Others insist that intoxication is not a private matter because it
affects the community by its consequences or its example. But so do
gluttony, greed, sloth and pride. And surely we realize asking the
Nanny State to eliminate them, minutely regulating every aspect of our
conduct, will render us miserable without purging sin from our hearts.

Certainly we should be able to shun the dissolute and deny them
charity. But that means less government not more. Which is also the
solution to gang gun violence.

Right now drugs are popular but illegal. This creates a lucrative
black market. People in this trade cannot call the police if they are
robbed or cheated, so they develop "informal" enforcement mechanisms.
The resulting gunplay menaces innocent bystanders, scandalizes the
public, and frustrates normal policing because its main victims aren't
on the side of the law.

Is this price worth paying for the satisfaction of knowing millions of
Canadians are taking drugs illegally rather than legally? If not, at
the risk of thinking clearly about what we're doing, we should revisit
Prohibition.
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MAP posted-by: Matt