PUTTING AN END TO GANG WARS

It remains one of my last memories of Richmond before I embarked on
my career in journalism.

A shootout in a quiet park early in 2007, a block from my parents'
house, that produced so much gunfire that, at the time, the police
said they had never seen so many bullets exchanged in a single clash.
As it turns out, that shootout was gang-related, much like the recent
daily violence oozing out of the Lower Mainland.

If you want to put a stop to the endless gang wars and body count,
legalize all drugs. Crack, heroin, pot - legalize all.

Pouring millions of dollars into policing and jails hasn't worked and
will continue to fail in the future.

The reasons are fairly straightforward.

The lure of the drug trade (it's estimated the marijuana industry
alone in B.C. is worth $7 billion) is just too lucrative for some
people to pass up and stopping its use is a losing battle. The threat
of prison hasn't done anything to make a dent in the gang warfare.
And why would it?

Does anyone really believe tougher sentences for gangsters will deter
someone who's willing to die?

Some suggest more police are needed to investigate and infiltrate the
criminal organizations. The City of Vancouver did this in the past,
with weak results. Remember its Gang Suppression Task Force? It
hasn't slowed the bloodshed.

But don't for a second think smaller communities are immune to the
kind of violence in the Lower Mainland. Otherwise, Victoria wouldn't
have stepped in and formed two gang units for both Kelowna and Prince George.

But, even if smaller communities are successful in fending off gangs,
they will still terrorize some other part of B.C., ultimately taking
lives and taxpayer cash. It's estimated a police investigation into
just one shooting can cost up to $1 million.

Instead, legalizing - not just decriminalizing - drugs will quickly
put an end to the ongoing turf war fueling the violence in the first
place. These thugs aren't shooting each other because someone stepped
on their shoes.

Essentially, let the government become the biggest drug dealer on the
block and there's no turf to fight over. The profit government would
earn from drug sales, which would be in the billions, can go directly
back into rehab, education programs, health care - wherever the money
is needed to get those afflicted with drug addiction some help. The
money can also go toward programs for at-risk youth, so they can
avoid getting caught up in the "gangsta" lifestyle in the first
place. Right now, all those profits are going toward the fancy
bulletproof cars that seem to turn up at every one of those deadly scenes.

Some will argue by legalizing drugs, the government and society is
condoning their use. But you can buy a pack of cigarettes at the
corner store and we don't hear an overwhelming outcry against the
government's efforts to spread the use of tobacco to households
across the country.

It's a recognition that a certain segment of society wants to get
high. We need to go back to the drawing board, think outside the box
or get back to square one. Because, at the rate of the current
violence, it's becoming cliche to get killed in hail of bullets.

Jeremy Deutsch is a reporter with the Kamloops This Week newspaper.