GANG CRACKDOWN ONLY THE FIRST STEP

Victoria police deserve praise for their efforts to prevent organized
gangs from moving into the street-level drug trade in the region. The
arrests this week of six people allegedly associated with the Red
Scorpions, a violent Lower Mainland group, sends a message that
police are alert to the risks of greater gang involvement in the trade.

But while the effort is important, the arrests will make no
difference in terms of drug use, dealing or property crimes linked to
addictions.

Only reduced demand for illegal drugs can begin to produce
improvements in those areas.

The arrests are still significant. Drug distribution and sales in the
region -- at least at the street level -- have not been controlled by
gangs or large organizations. It's hardly a safe business. But the
region has been spared the escalating gang clashes over turf or
customers that have brought bloodshed to the Lower Mainland. Anything
police can do to keep gangs out of the business will increase public safety.

And enforcement can usefully deter open drug markets and ensure that
those thinking about dealing must contemplate the possibility of arrest.

But it won't reduce drug use and related crime. As Sgt. Shinder Clark
of the B.C. Integrated Gang Task Force noted this week, as long as
the demand exists for drugs, people will sell them. Research after
massive drug seizures has found no decrease in supply or rise in
prices on the street.

Those are simply facts, established beyond doubt by some 80 years of
effort to tackle substance abuse through enforcement tactics.

Any real successes in dealing with the problem -- and the human
tragedy of drug use -- must come from efforts to reduce the demand
for drugs and the need to commit crimes to get them.

Education, for starters. Our efforts, at home and in the schools,
have been at best marginally effectively. We need to be much smarter
and more honest and begin much earlier in helping people to make
better choices.

We know, for example, that some people are at much greater risk of
addiction. Children who demonstrate behaviour problems or struggle in
elementary school, people from very poor communities, children and
youths whose parents overuse alcohol or other drugs, for example, are
all at higher risk. Aggressive prevention efforts could make a large
difference.

Treatment is also critical, both for substance abuse and mental
illness. Yet underfunding continues to mean limited outreach, long
waits and inadequate post-treatment housing and support to prevent relapse.

And harm reduction -- from needle exchanges to safe injection sites
to outreach services -- is needed to reduce health risks and link
people with treatment. Even controversial measures, like providing
prescription heroin or encouraging addicts to switch from drugs like
crack cocaine to less destructive alternatives, should be tried and assessed.

Police can make the streets slightly safer. Real progress in reducing
the damage done by drugs requires intelligent, effective and
well-funded efforts to deal with the demand side of the drug equation.