EFFORTS TO STEM DRUGS ARE A BUST

The War On Drugs Is Lost.

Finally, law enforcement officers are admitting what medical professionals,
social workers and much of the public has known for years.

This week, Vancouver Police Chief Bruce Chambers gave the media this
remarkable quote: "We cannot pretend to be winning anymore - we're not even
having decent skirmishes."

BC spends close to $80 million a year in drug enforcement. It is money
flushed into the same gutter in which drug addicts wallow.

Compared to the value of the provincial drug trade, which is larger than
some small countries' entire economy, the annual investment in related
enforcement is probably worth less than a day or two of drug trading in BC.
While marijuana - the province's leading cash crop - is exported out by the
tonne, heroin and cocaine is imported in, in some cases pound for pound.
The Port of Vancouver is North America's leading entry point of heroin.
Despite improved technology and increasingly sophisticated interdiction
methods, drug enforcement efforts are hopelessly overwhelmed by sheer
volume, literally measured by tonnage.

The so-called deterrance of criminal penalties - even the stiffest of
prison terms - are clearly ineffective upon those in the drug trade. The
lure of mind-boggling profits is simply too strong, the chances of being
caught too slight.

It's a matter of basic economics. Supply is meeting market demand. The
demand is massive and insatiable

The impact on the rest of society is mammoth.

Police estimate 80 per cent of residential and commercial break-ins, thefts
and robberies are committed by drug addicts or drug abusers financing their
grossly expensive habits.

The material costs in terms of stolen property replacement, damage repair,
hefty insurance premiums and law enforcement response runs in the hundreds
of millions of dollars. The tremendous emotional and personal cost paid by
the victims of these crimes is unmeasurable.

And we haven't yet touched on related health care costs, which have been
estimated at $100 million annually, just for the treatment of addicts.
Provincial health officer Dr. John Millar estimates there are 15,000 drug
addicts in BC. This year, the Vancouver region is headed for a record
number of drug-related fatalities - about 400.

Usually, each one of those deaths require responses by police, ambulance
crews and occasionally hospital emergency room attention.

And then there's the monster cost of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, largely fueled
by the sharing of dirty needles by injection drug abusers.

As politically distasteful as it may be, it's time to decriminalize some
drugs such as marijuana, and instead, invest the resources and money wasted
in enforcement efforts into education and rehabilitation. Combined with
enhanced heroin treatment programs and other expanded services for drug
addicts, this approach has potential to turn the tide.

Let's face it, under traditional anti-drug strategies, we're drowning in dope.