WORST OF BOTH WORLDS IN GANG, DRUG WARS

No one should have to worry about getting caught in gang crossfire.
The efforts of the province to combat gang activity are
well-intentioned, and we hope they have some effect, but there is no
easy answer.

Some people are inclined to point fingers, especially at the
soft-on-crime court system. It's true this revolving-door approach for
a bunch of punks scoffing at the system is doing little to curb their
business activities. It seems clear the rise of gang activity in our
region has a lot to do with a system that doesn't want to punish gangs
for selling drugs or weapons offences. Many have blamed judges for
being out of step with the public. And they're right.

But there's another problem. There is a total disconnect right now
between our drug laws and actual human behaviour. We don't want to
make light of the health consequences of drugs, but the truth is that
many otherwise law-abiding people use them.

People of all political stripes now recognize that prohibition has not
worked, just like it failed with alcohol -- another drug with serious
health consequences. It is arguably the biggest social engineering
failure in modern history. Note that no one is seriously talking about
bringing it back to combat alcohol problems. The last thing we need is
a bunch of alcoholics busting into houses to pay for their habit.

At present, we have the worst of both worlds: a growing sense among
many people that punishing drug use rather than treating it as a
health issue is wrong-headed and hasn't worked; at the same time we
grow frustrated by a legal system that does little to discourage the
gangs who distribute drugs.

Until we really come to terms with this disconnect in our attitude, we
can expect more of the same trouble.