Section: Letter of the Day

Comment: Parenthetical remarks by the Sun editor : headline by hawk

WHAT WILL MPP Jim Brown's plan to padlock known crackhouses do?

a) Encourage people to refrain from seeking crack.

b) Put crack dealers out of business.

c) Make first-time users less likely to try crack.

d) Force crack activities and sales transactions to other locations.

It's a classic finger-in-the-dike solution. Similar to the idea of arresting
squeegee kids and panhandlers, padlocking crackhouses does not deal with the
source of the problem. More jails and more police is a copout that shows a
lack of depth in research and investigation and only serves to cover up the
problem.

Why deal with the symptoms of a problem instead of the cause? Although the
causes of substance abuse are not easily located, finding them and dealing
with them directly are more beneficial to society.

By directing resources at identifying them and then focusing ideas on how to
solve them, there is a greater chance the solutions will be permanent and
ultimately, less expensive.

For a party that pretends to be progressive, this policy initiative isn't.

Eugene Spanier Toronto

(Progressive would be someone in government taking a good look at
decriminalizing drug use. We're sure not winning the war against them using
today's tactics)

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst