STONED AND STUNNED

This column was originally going to be about the violent drug war in
Vancouver, with the premise being, "What the h--- is going on out there?"

Forced to amend it due to current events, I can now wonder what the
h--- is going on in Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove?

The RCMP announced this week that a drug bust in that lovely town
nabbed two kilograms of cocaine, $300,000 in cash and various types of
guns. Two men have been charged.

The drug capers in Vancouver, of course, have been far more serious
and violent. Targeted killings have become common, with police
regularly announcing another "gang-related" shooting. Most of the
time, the victim is someone "known to police," which is cop-speak for
"gang member."

When I follow the news, I try to reconcile the Vancouver that I see
portrayed there and the Vancouver I knew 25 years ago as a student at
the University of British Columbia. The world changes, obviously, but
even so, the crass, unabashed violence taking place today would have
been utterly alien to the place a quarter-century ago.

But Vancouver is not alone in that regard. Other cities can be put on
the list. Calgary. Montreal. Winnipeg. Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove.

War on Stupidity

Police spokesmen like to use the quaint phrase "turf war" - as if it
involves tykes in a backyard tussle - but when you strip away the
euphemisms and cliches, it's obvious the violence plaguing many
Canadian cities is due to the drug trade.

It isn't rocket science. If you know any rocket scientists, you could
ask them for verification, but if not, we can rely on our own ability
to analyze the facts and logically conclude that "gangs" and "drugs"
are inextricably linked. (We can leave the question of when "gangs"
supplanted "organized crime" for another day.)

It has been widely proclaimed that the North American war on drugs has
been an abject failure, and the only people not fully aware of it are
Republican ex-presidents (and, possibly, Tory PMs).

That policy has more than failed. It has backfired. The war on drugs
has morphed into an ongoing drug war. All those people "known to
police" are killing each other because of arguments over who is going
to profit - or profit more - by selling and/or distributing illegal
drugs.

If marijuana, hashish, cocaine, heroin and other drugs were legal,
their monetary value would immediately plummet, probably by so much
that they would no longer be a reliable source of income for gangs,
bikers and organized crime syndicates, and "the mob" could once again
refer merely to an unruly group of people.

Flimsy Foundation

There is no scientific basis for these drugs to be illegal. You don't
ever hear a police spokesman proclaim that stoned speeders kill more
people per year than do drunk drivers. No politician or pundit ever
claims that cocaine addiction is a bigger scourge upon society than is
alcoholism. No researcher worth his or her place in the lab would ever
say hash is worse for the heart than are hamburgers. As for heroin,
well, where are the figures proving it has killed more people than has
tobacco?

Drug laws in Canada and the U.S. are based on a value judgment, and
nothing more. They have been deemed "bad" and are thus illegal. But it
is becoming increasingly clear that the biggest danger posed by
illegal drugs is their illegality.

Lest anyone misunderstand my argument and think I'm about to invite
them over to shoot some heroin or share tokes of a fat joint - I
haven't done the latter in this century, and have never done the
former - questioning the wisdom of current drug laws is now a
mainstream political issue. The days are long gone when the case for
legalization, or for the zany "decriminalization," was made only by
hippies and stoners.

The Associated Press reported this week that in the U.S. "the calls to
legalize weed are nonetheless getting louder and more persistent every
day." Even U.S. President Barack Obama has admitted indulging when he
was young(er). With typical candour and humour, he added, "And I
inhaled frequently - that was the point."