DRUG PROHIBITION IS THE ROOT CAUSE OF CLOGGED COURTS

Re: Delays jamming up B.C. courts, front page, Sept. 8

The delays that exist in the criminal justice system may well have
something to do with in-custody additional credits for time served,
but that is only a small part of the problem.

Most accused are not detained in custody. And the proposal to reduce
the credit for each day served from two to 1.5 days doesn't really
address the problem, anyway. It's akin to putting a Band-Aid on a
small cut while ignoring severe trauma elsewhere. The main reason
criminal courts are clogged is our simple-minded insistence on
treating drug use and drug addiction as criminal justice issues to be
punished, rather than social and medical challenges to be solved. The
addict busted for possession or small-scale selling is, generally
speaking, going right back to the behaviour after being prosecuted,
convicted and even jailed. The traffickers and producers of illicit
drugs aren't being deterred by the prospect of arrest and never will
be. The criminal law simply can't overcome basic supply-and-demand
economics. Meanwhile, drug prohibition does two things that create
crime. First, it creates unregulated markets in which the commodity
is fantastically overpriced and sellers are prepared to use violence
to defend their windfall profits. Second, the price of the drug is so
high that many addicts need to steal, sell and prostitute themselves
to be able to afford it. This prohibition-related crime disrupts our
communities and clogs the criminal justice system.

During this election, your readers will hear much about problems with
the system. I urge them also to consider that much of the problem
comes from our choice of laws.

Kirk Tousaw

Barrister

Vancouver