SORRY, MAYOR BILL. WE CAN'T WISH AWAY DRUG USE

Tougher laws and longer jail terms can't cure social ills, or stop the
killings

So Sheriff Billy wants the bad guys out of Dodge.

"Get out of Edmonton. Get out of Alberta," Mayor Smith told the city's drug
merchants and drug users yesterday.

I understand his frustration. The recent rash of drug-related gang violence
in this city is frightening. So too is the apparent inability of the police
and the courts to stop the killings.

But you can't wish the problem away.

Nor can you eliminate the drug trade, and the crime that goes with it, with
police helicopters, zero-tolerance policies and massive gang trials.

It's no surprise Smith feels the need to make a strong law-and-order
statement now. The groundswell of support for police Chief Bob Wasylyshen's
hypothetical mayoral campaign clearly touched a nerve.

And the mayor has a point.

"Ordinary" Edmontonians who dabble in hard drugs and then complain about
gang violence are hypocrites.

But borrowing the overripe rhetoric of the failed American war on drugs
won't make Edmonton's streets safer.

I share the mayor's distaste for drug use. A community where too many people
escape their problems, shirk their responsibilities, impair their judgment
and numb their emotions by abusing consciousness-altering drugs -- including
alcohol -- is a sick community.

High school students shouldn't be high on pot or crystal meth or beer,
whether they're studying or simply engaging with life.

Parents ought not to neglect their kids while they're out looking for their
next score or knocking back their next highball.

Messing with your brain chemistry, even "recreationally," is a risky game --
and a pretty pathetic way to have "fun."

But just as (U.S.) Prohibition didn't stop people from drinking, drug
prohibition has demonstrated a lousy track record in stopping people from
using drugs.

As long as there is a market for illegal drugs, entrepreneurs will step up
to meet that demand. Put one drug gang in jail, and a new one will take its
place.

Stop cocaine at the border, and you create a market for a home-grown
alternative: crystal methamphetamine.

And with the illegal drug trade, comes violence.

Richard Stevenson, professor of health economics at Liverpool University,
put the problem well in a paper for the Fraser Institute.

"One would not wish to express strong sympathy for drug dealers," said
Stevenson. "But consider the situation from their point of view.

"In illegal trades, contracts do not have the backing of the law. Disputes
cannot be settled or debts recovered by appeal to the courts. Firms cannot
compete by normal means. In the absence of normal competitive processes,
firms protect and expand their markets by the use of violence, or the threat
of violence."

And that's what we see playing out on Edmonton's streets.

There is a policy alternative. But it's a daring one.

We could decriminalize "hard" drugs. We could strictly regulate their sale,
carefully monitor their purity, then tax the proceeds. We could put the drug
gangs out of business.

And we could reduce the health problems associated with the underground drug
trade, like HIV and hepatitis.

It's an argument gaining surprising strength on both the left and the right,
in the face of the war-on-drugs policy failure.

I'm still wrestling with it. I fret over the medical, social, ethical and,
dare I say, spiritual consequences of normalizing drug use.

But maybe it's time to divert some of the resources we put into fighting
crime into fighting addiction, to frame this as a public health challenge.

That means more money for drug treatment and counselling. More money for
mental health care. More money for everything from primary education to
affordable housing to job retraining to programs that keep kids off drugs
and out of gang culture.

Drug use, though, transcends class lines. It's part of the lifestyle of the
rich and famous, the ordinary and middle-class. It's cool. It's glamorous.
And that's in no small part because it's illicit.

Tougher laws and longer jail terms can't cure our social ills, or stop the
killings. Our old "solutions" aren't working. It's time to start trying some
new ones.