DRUGS AREN'T THE PROBLEM

The mayor has said that he doesn't have the money to put an end to
the drug war being waged on the streets of Calgary. No kidding. In
Russia in the mid 1980s they literally had a cop on every corner and
heroin use increased by 400% a year. We could triple the number of
cops on our streets, pay exorbitant taxes and the war would become
more violent than it is today. It's economics. If you remove a large
part of a demanded product, you drive up its value and make more
players more violent to possess a smaller amount of product. Removing
drugs will increase the violence. Drugs will always be available. Do
we want the trade to be violent or peaceful? The U.S. discovered this
during the Al Capone era and ended the alcohol war. It's time the
mayor and police solved problems with competent actions rather than
fanning the flames of violence with a big dumb hammer and raiding our
bank accounts.

DENNIS YOUNG

(The mayor and police don't have any control over Canada's drug laws.)