WE'VE LOST WAR ON DRUGS

To the editor:

A recent announcement there are 135 identified crack houses in Halifax is
the latest move by the authorities in the drug war. (Crack-house List too
Long for City, editorial, Oct. 28). What difference will it make if the
police shut these houses down? More will open in their place and we won't
know where they are for a time. Then taxpayers will fund another massive
drug raid, more dealers will go to jail, and the cycle will continue.

In the U.S., a drug arrest happens every 30 seconds. A jail or prison is
being built every month to house a population that has doubled in the past
10 years since Ronald Reagan announced the war on drugs. I think our
figures are similar, with population adjustments. It is a war we cannot win
any more than we could win it over alcohol. We must surrender and legalize
drugs to get control of this situation. Crime will drop and we will save
and make billions of dollars to pay down the debt. Organized crime groups
such as the Hells Angels will be delivered a huge blow and lose power.

We will be able to offer drug treatment and prevention that would have the
potential to change the direction of drug abuse/addiction in our country.
This is the only action that will effect a shift in the growth of the drug
culture. Unfortunately, we are nowhere near this kind of thinking in Canada
or the U.S., although the list of converts is growing. Write your
representatives and insist on change in tactics. The war on drugs is over -
we lost.

Derek Toupin, Chignecto