TIME TO RE-EVALUATE POLICIES

In your editorial response to Marc Paquette's Nov. 17 letter you state "Most
cops I know just want to help people and bust bad guys". Of course this is
true, but the problem is cops are not trained social scientists or experts
on human behaviour. They fail to recognize that no matter how good their
intentions may be they are directly supporting the black market prices that
attract criminals to the illegal drug market. When it's easier for our kids
to buy illegal drugs than beer or cigarettes, we have to re-evaluate
policies. Property crime would most certainly be dramatically reduced if the
drugs a small percentage of our population are addicted to were available at
low prices in a legal market. The police also have a conflict of interest in
that much of the funding they receive is to fight the war on drugs.

David Lane

(Doing the wrong thing for the right reasons?)