VEHICLE BREAK-INS REFLECT OUR FAILURE

Drug-Related Crimes Will Continue To Plague Us

On a typical day, 10 people in Victoria have their cars broken into.
Count them as yet more victims of a drug policy that doesn't work for
addicts or the community.

Police report that break-ins and thefts from cars are on the rise
across much of the region. The reason, they say, is that desperate
addicts are searching for change or small items that they can sell
quickly to pay for drugs.

In Victoria and Esquimalt alone, the number of vehicle break-ins is
likely to reach the 4,000 mark this year. The total for the entire
region is much higher.

These are stupid crimes. The thieves get change or a few CDs or a pair
of sunglasses. The owner is left with a repair bill of several hundred
dollars to replace a shattered window or smashed lock and, perhaps
most significantly, with a sense that life in the community is
deteriorating.

It's not just car thefts. Victoria Police Chief Paul Battershill said
earlier this year that 90 per cent of property crimes in the city are
committed by addicts looking for a quick source of cash. That's 8,500
crimes last year, almost all small property offences -- except from
the perspective of all those victims.

Police are tackling vehicle break-ins with a number of measures,
including bait cars. The public can help by making sure there is
nothing left in vehicles to attract the attention of thieves.

But it's ultimately a futile effort. Addicts may be deterred from car
break-ins, but if they still need drugs they will look for other ways
to get money -- shoplifting, or thefts from backyards or whatever else
seems easy.

So we can keep hiring more police and ask them to do the
impossible.

Or we can attempt to deal sensibly and pragmatically with the problem
of addiction.

The starting points are obvious -- more effective education on drugs
in schools and available treatment for those ready to take that step.
Both are sadly lacking. The Vancouver Island Health Authority has only
a handful of detox beds for the entire region.

But we need to go much further. We need to see movement on stalled
initiatives like community courts, which would shift people caught
committing drug-related crimes straight into tough treatment programs.
We need the federal government to drop its opposition to
safe-injection sites, which remove some of the chaos and danger from
the lives of users and provide a gateway to a more stable life.
Methadone programs need to be expanded, as do programs to make drugs
available on a prescription basis.

Most of all, as the B.C. Progress Board summarized this month in its
report on crime, "there needs to be some action."

The current policies are a failure, a fact confirmed every day with
the latest batch of car break-ins and thefts.

Surely it's time to wake up and take the steps needed to make life
better for addicts and the community safer for everyone.