DRUG PROHIBITION DOOMS US TO GANG VIOLENCE

Richmond RCMP spokesman Cpl. Peter Thiessen is quoted as saying that
the people who were in Dover Park at the time of last week's shootout
"have absolutely no regard for public safety."

Thiessen might as well have said that the politicians who run this
country have absolutely no regard for public safety.

The gang violence associated with the trade in illegal drugs is the
inevitable result of the prohibition of these drugs.

Gang members do not have recourse to such civil-dispute-resolution
mechanisms as calling the police to report theft of their goods or
pursuing litigation to resolve business disputes.

I'm not aware of the RCMP having ever reported incidents of gang
violence surrounding the production or distribution of tobacco or
alcohol products.

Can we learn from this? Or are we doomed by our insistence that
"moral righteousness" should supersede all other considerations, even
at the expense of making our communities less safe and moving ever
closer to a police-state society?

George Kosinski,

Gibsons