BUYING PRODUCT REWARDS BAD GUYS

Here's the hypocrisy. How many people in Calgary who would scream for
a policeman if a bullet came whistling past their ear in the mall,
and would be horrified to come home to a break-in, also think there's
nothing wrong with a little recreational cocaine?

About as many as would freak out if a judge fined them four figures
for possessing a few grains of it. Which is too many.

They don't get it. Without a market, there's no sale. That makes the
people who buy drugs as much the problem as the guys in the Escalades
and the tricked-out Hondas, who take potshots at each other.

And who are the buyers?

Yes, some are hopeless addicts, ruined by their vice. These are the
people who do the break-ins. To get by, somebody who has a $1,000/day
habit has to steal $4,000 worth of goods to fence.

But, from the office towers of the downtown core to the affluent
suburbs, marijuana is everywhere and cocaine is mainstream.

At least one bar of my acquaintance on 17th Avenue has resorted to
placing Velcro on the tops of the toilet tanks, to make it more
difficult for patrons to lay out the lines. (Just try to picture the
scene: So much for the glamour of a cocaine-fuelled life in the fast lane).

Police say Calgarians are "90 per cent with us." At social functions,
"you don't have to apologize for being a policeman."

But, is it really? These drugs -- along with prostitution and porn to
a lesser extent -- are putting hundreds of millions of dollars
annually into the pockets of the people the police are out there fighting.

Police spokesmen who visited the Herald editorial board Thursday
declined to speculate how much, but conceded it was huge.

No wonder. A gram of cocaine can sell in the $80 to $100 range, which
makes the markup out of this world.

Local gangs -- about 150 individuals are deeply engaged -- buy it
wholesale for $30,000 a kilograms.

By the time it's on the street, it brings back as much as $100,000,
presumably from several hundred people.

That's just a kilo, but these days 10 kg, once considered a major
bust, is now considered normal. A quick search of the Herald archives
reveals more than 60 police busts in the last few years, some quite large.

Ten kg was recovered from a vehicle wreck.

A couple of arrests in the last three months in Cochrane that
involved a few kg of cocaine also involved $1 million in marijuana,
pointing to regular distribution activity of both. Ingeniously,
police rappelled down the side of a swanky Eau Claire high rise in
August to seize a few more kg.

A bust at the Coutts border crossing involved 69 kg. (And, out of the
immediate area admittedly, an 800 kg seizure in B.C. points to the
sheer scale of the trade).

One could go on, but as the police are quick to point out, if one
calls this the tip of the iceberg, one shouldn't assume the
one-eighth visible ratio. Nothing like an eighth is being seized.

This is before one begins to tally the marijuana score. Reliable
estimates are hard to make, but in 2005, city police seized more than
59,000 marijuana plants during the search of 138 suspected grow ops
- -- which is pretty much business as usual.

Not all of it is for local consumption. A few weeks ago, a Calgary
man was arrested at the border heading south with 90 kilograms of it,
and therein hangs a tale.

The Americans have stiffer penalties for grow ops and trafficking. In
Montana, for instance, it's a minimum seven-year sentence for running
a grow operation.

Maybe that's because a grow op ruins a house; maybe they just don't
like pot. Anyway, this individual was looking at a 35-year sentence
upon conviction.

"That gives the Americans leverage we don't have," explains Insp.
Shaun Gissing. "Here, the courts will hand out perhaps a year for
running a grow op, although some people never go to jail at all. Mere
marijuana possession is treated like a traffic ticket. This guy,
though, in return for a 15-year sentence, spilled the beans on the
whole operation."

Rich, hard-working, hard-partying Calgary illustrates a wider Canadian dilemma.

People can't have it both ways: law and order in the streets and safe
suburbs, plus the quiet enjoyment of the fruits of criminal activity.

In life, you get more of the behaviour you reward.

Reward criminals with your money and easy time, and you will have more of them.