DRUGS ARE INVOLVED, NOT CAUSE OF MOST CRIMINAL ACTIVITY

To the Editor,

Re: Most criminal activity starts with drug issues, Dec. 5.

While it is true that drugs are indeed involved in the majority of
criminal activity police deal with, there is no indication whatsoever that
drugs are the root cause of criminal activity. That distinction belongs
exclusively to prohibition and the RCMP are being quite disingenuous to
state otherwise.

Prohibition precludes, by way of legislation, the retail marketing of
'drugs' in an open market subject to limitations afforded by law.

The criminalization of drugs is a legislative action which, in effect,
establishes organized crime as the de facto benefactor; it also creates
the need for enforcement.

Equally important, however, is that prohibition provides the opportunity
to present whatever logic which is deemed sufficient to justify extreme
measures.

This holds as true today as it did during its inception.

In order to complement this agenda the need for both specific
indoctrination about drugs (hence DARE) is imperative as well as a course
of remedial action countenancing justice system's involvement (as
correction).

The only downside of it all is that none of it works; it has, in effect,
backfired.

Had the prohibition of drugs worked then, drugs would not be an issue
today. Nor would there be any reason to spend a few hundred million of
taxpayer monies annually exasperating flaws.

Prohibition has, over the decades, demonstrably failed. "One of the
biggest changes over the past 30 years has been the increased potency of
the drugs," is typical testimony to that effect.

Wayne Phillips

Hamilton, Ontario