UNDERLYING ISSUES WILL STILL REMAIN

I read with interest former justice [Jerry] Paradis's comments about
the Lower Mainland's current problem with gang warfare. While it's
true that decriminalizing drugs would solve the immediate problem by
eliminating the market, the underlying issues will still remain.
People join gangs because this seems to be their most reasonable
opportunity-financially, socially, and culturally. Eliminate the drug
market, and another market will be found and exploited soon enough.

The underlying problem fuelling organized crime is our broken
economic system. Families live in poverty with both parents working
long, hard hours, and this situation provides a continuous source of
recruits for gangs. Emotionally alienated children from all
demographics provide the rest of this human-resource pool.

None of the Band-Aid solutions being offered will do anything to make
us safer. Even decriminalizing drugs won't do it, as long as we have
people growing up essentially alone, with no bright future ahead of
them, ripe for the picking by organized crime. We need to figure out
how to better support the families of young children, to take some
pressure off and somehow make life less miserable for the working poor.

Chella Turnbull

Vancouver