B.C. PLAN FOR DRUG TREATMENT ADMIRABLE

Drug addicts are sick people, not criminals, and should be treated as such.

That's why Canadians should back a proposal made recently by the health
officers of British Columbia. These doctors asked federal and provincial
governments to allow them to prescribe heroin, cocaine and other illegal
drugs to addicts.

They want B.C. to finance a trial program allowing them to do so. But such
a trial also requires federal support because there would have to be
amendments to the Controlled Substances Act. The proposal, which deserves
to be endorsed by all Canadian taxpayers, would make drugs available "in a
tightly controlled system of medical prescription within a comprehensive
addiction management program.''

For evidence this approach works, policy-makers should examine Switzerland.
The Swiss have found that by giving heroin addicts drugs and counselling,
they have gotten the vast majority of users off the welfare rolls and out
of jails.

In Canada, addicts spend most of their time either earning or stealing the
excessive amounts of money needed to buy narcotics. Because the drugs are
illegal, the market is black and prices are exorbitant.

PERSONALITY PROBLEMS

A kilo of cocaine is worth between $3,500 and $5,000, depending upon
quality, consumer and region. Addicts fork out hundreds of dollars daily to
meet their narcotic needs. Because they are also afflicted with personality
disorders, most are incapable of earning that much money legitimately.

The only policy approach to date has been a form of prohibition through the
seizure of drugs and imprisonment of pushers. This has not worked any more
than did prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s.

Besides, it is a prudish concept that fails to accept the fact as much as
10 per cent of all people struggle with some form of addiction, be it
cigarettes, booze or drugs.

More importantly, prohibition ignores the simple economic law of supply and
demand.

A kilo worth $5,000 in Vancouver can be bought in Northern Peru for $100.

VERY PROFITABLE

"There is nothing as profitable as smuggling drugs,'' said Norman Inkster,
former commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in a recent
interview. He's now president of KPMG Investigations and Security Inc.

The huge mark-up provides plenty of funds to bring the stuff into the
marketplace ever more cunningly. High tech equipment and the corruption of
police or customs officials can easily be afforded when profits are that
high and, most important, tax-free.

Profits are so big an army of salesmen, or drug dealers, make a handsome
living off addicting new customers. So demand keeps increasing.

But every time police or customs officials make a large drug bust, supply
diminishes. In other words, interdiction makes the price of narcotics rise
which, in turn, makes smuggling and peddling more and more lucrative.

The problem with this supply and demand equation is the price can continue
to skyrocket because the customers are addicted.

DEADLY PYRAMID

Having no choice, they mug or rob or embezzle. Many deal drugs themselves
in order to pay for their own supply -- a form of deadly pyramid selling
that's ruining families and neighborhoods and law enforcement budgets.

Even worse is the corruption in police departments, courts and elsewhere
the drug industry causes. All drug proceeds must be laundered, which
involves stock markets and other financial intermediaries.

The problem is global, but Canada should join Switzerland in leading the
way toward the real solution.

Others are searching for different answers. The United Nations is trying to
convert producing countries to other crops. Thailand grows poppies, but
this is labor intensive because harvesters must slice each bulb to get the
narcotic. The UN has convinced many they can make more money with other
crops and do less work.

But that again will decrease supply, making prices go up in the absence of
a drop in demand.

The only solution is the one Swiss -- and now B.C. -- doctors are offering.
Addicts should be treated as patients, not pestilence.

If addicts are treated with drugs and counselling, they can function
reasonably well and perhaps even be cured. If ignored, they will continue
to harm themselves, their families and society.

Copyright (c) 1998 The London Free Press a division of Sun Media

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)