RECREATIONAL DRUG BUYERS SUPPORT TURF GANG WARFARE

To the editor:

Re: Difficult Battle To Win Right Now, Capital News Feb 18.

You hit the nail on the head when you remind readers that we, the
public, are a big part of the problem when we're talking about gang
violence or, indeed, organized crime.

The elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about is the demand
for drugs, both here and across the border.

Who buys these drugs? We, the Canadian and American public,
do.

Many people like to justify using cocaine or marijuana as a
(relatively) harmless thing to do to their bodies, but as the law
stands your dealer commits a crime when you buy it. And worse, you
encourage yourself, your friends and society to think nothing of
breaking laws.

So what's to be done? However good the argument for legalizing such
drugs, along with heroin, we know it's impossible in the short term.
While Uncle Sam maintains his present drug policy Canadians for
legalization can dream on.

But there is something we can do. We can wake up to the fact that
buying drugs contributes to organized crime. It's that simple. We can
make sure everybody understands it, from school kids to grandparents.
We can make buying drugs-even the smallest purchase-as socially
unacceptable as drunken driving or smoking in restaurants or beating
our children or being cruel to animals.

It will take a while but when the general public gets behind the idea,
as it has in the cases mentioned, the gangs' profits would disappear,
and with them a good part of our present problems.

Colin Castle

West Kelowna