Pubdate: Sat, 11 Jul 2015
Source: North Bay Nugget (CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 North Bay Nugget
Contact: http://www.nugget.ca/letters
Website: http://www.nugget.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2226
Page: 4

POLICE CAN'T SOLVE SOCIETY'S DRUG PROBLEMS

Polling North Bay and Callander residents to gather information about 
how policing resources should be spent is not, in itself, a bad idea.

The North Bay Police Service should take the pulse of its customers 
at regular intervals. It's a service agency, after all.

Including questions about how much more people are willing to spend 
is not just bad taste, it smells of self-serving politics.

The public should also be concerned that the police, through a board 
of directors poorly designed to create broad-based social policy, 
would use the feedback as ammunition to bolster its ranks.

Oracle Poll Research results from its survey of residents last month 
found respondents are most concerned about the problems caused by 
drugs. It was a similar result in 2013.

It's like the police service spent $5,000 to step outside to see if 
the sun was shining.

That North Bay and Callander are dealing with the issues created by 
drug addiction is painfully obvious. It has been for many years.

So is Ontario, Canada and the world for that matter.

But in no place anywhere on Earth has additional policing, on its 
own, helped the situation.

Drug addiction, specifically involving pharmaceutical-grade pain 
killers and hard street drugs such as crack cocaine and 
methamphetamine, has roots that run deeper than what the justice 
system can cure.

People slip through the cracks in our society when our economic, 
educational and health systems fail them. Drug addiction stems more 
from lost hope and hurdles blocking opportunity.

Mayor Al McDonald, after reviewing the 2015 poll results, repeated an 
often heard dream of a drug-free community.

Unfortunately, that alone won't solve much of anything and it's 
unlikely policing will be the primary route toward that allusive utopia.

Better to focus on stronger foundations in the areas of health, 
education and economy.

Even if our community is drug-free, there's still easy access to 
alcohol for those suffering through life, and we all know that booze 
causes more pain and death than any pill or powder.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom