PROHIBITION THE PROBLEM

Columnist Joey Thompson wonders why the Correctional Service of
Canada's policy is ineffective at keeping drugs out of prisons. She
shouldn't be too quick to blame CSC or privacy rights. Drugs get into
prisons because demand creates supply.

The problem is that drug prohibition creates and reproduces
contradictions that cannot, without offending liberal democratic
principles, be resolved.

Those principles, including privacy rights, are a monumental
achievement, envied among progressives all over the world.

As long as prohibition ensures drug trafficking remains profitable,
prohibition will continue to fail just as reliably inside prison as it
does outside.

It is no solution to weaken or undermine privacy rights, which are the
product of 500 years of democratic struggle and political evolution.
Train your guns on the real problem, Ms. Thompson, not on its
byproducts and unintended consequences.

Craig Jones,

John Howard Society of Canada