DRUGS A CRIME ISSUE

Lower Mainland police departments and government officials continue
to wrestle with a wave of gang-related crime.

Last week, a new police unit called the Violence Suppression Unit,
made up of 60 officers from Vancouver and other departments, was announced.

Developed to crack down specifically on gang violence, it will hit
the streets tomorrow.

But all the well-trained and well-equipped cops in the world are not
going to make a dent in the activities of the gangs that make their
fortunes on the backs of the drug addicts that litter our downtown streets.

Trust me, homes in Vancouver's Shaughnessy don't come cheap - there
is a lot of tax-free heroin cash funding some pretty fabulous
lifestyles around town.

After my column last week, I had folks write and tell me that the
solution to the soaring violence and increasing numbers of addicts
was legalization of drugs - effectively cut the dealers out of the
market and supply the heroin from the corner "drug store."

As someone who has witnessed first hand the ravages of addiction, I
can't think of anything less humane than to allow a fellow Canadian
to fall into the grasp of despair and keep handing them over the
means to their own demise.

We've allowed ourselves to buy into the myth that drugs are a health
problem. They aren't. They are a moral problem that fuels a crime
problem. The drug trafficking industry is an insidious cancer upon
the youth and vulnerable in our nation.

Traffickers should be penalized to the greatest extent possible.

In Singapore, that means death - those in possession of heroin, pot,
cocaine, crystal meth or ecstasy in an amount more than required for
personal use are automatically sentenced to death.

Singapore might be onto something.

And in Singapore, if you are caught with less than the "trafficking
amount," you are sentenced to mandatory rehab. Period. No "harm
reduction", no revolving door of property crime sentences to fund
your habit, no "but his life has been so tough." After time in the
Drug Rehabilitation Centre, aftercare assists with reintegration with
society and assistance finding work.

The re-offend rate in 2000 was 59 per cent. Singapore has one of the
lowest drug addiction rates in the world, and its addicts get clean
and stay clean at a much higher rate than nations who embrace the
"illness" model.

Most importantly, given the spate of violence that has marred our
city this fall - crime syndicates are less likely to establish
themselves in Singapore because the cost of doing business is too high.

And that alone is something worth considering, before someone else is
caught in the crossfire.