MORE POLICING WORSENS DRUG VIOLENCE: STUDY

Illegal Trade; Argues That Gangs Step Up When Key Players Removed

In Canadian cities like Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, one of the
most pressing priorities for police is combatting an illegal drug
trade that has spawned a rash of gangland violence in recent years.

A provocative new report from a B.C. HIV-research agency, however,
suggests that throwing more police resources at the problem will only
make the bloodshed worse, not bring peace to the streets.

The majority of studies conducted on the issue over the last 20 years
in the U.S. and elsewhere indicate that gang violence increases as
law-enforcement activity against the drug trade steps up, says the
report from the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.

The authors suggest that the Conservative government's emphasis on
law-enforcement to confront drug addiction, and a proposed new bill
that would send more drug offenders to prison, are destined to
backfire. Arrests and long prison terms just set the groundwork for
feuding between rival gangs, said Dr. Evan Wood, a medical professor
at the University of British Columbia and the lead researcher.

"When you destabilize the market by taking key players out, violence
will ensue," he said.

Alternative measures are needed to lessen narcotics-linked murder and
mayhem, says the report, to be released today. For Dr. Wood, that
means changing the status of illicit drugs ranging from marijuana to
heroin, making them lawfully available to adults but under strictly
regulated access to minimize their use. That way, he said, there is
less incentive for criminal gangs to get involved in the trade, the
way organized crime took over alcohol sales when liquor was banned
during the Prohibition.

Police and drug experts who support criminalization of narcotics
questioned the report's conclusions.

Larry Molyneaux, a veteran Toronto police officer and president of
the Ontario Police Association, said his experience suggests police
enforcement is effective against the drug trade.

"When you start to take down and arrest people who are involved in
the drug war, I see the opposite," he said. "What in fact you do is,
you diminish crime because these people have been taken out of their element."

Police action against drug gangs may provoke some violence, but it is
only a temporary phenomenon, argued Jeannette Hay, a Toronto drug
consultant and spokeswoman for the Drug Prevention Network of Canada.

"If the criminals are left alone, then obviously there will be less
violence," she said. "If you go in and try to put justice there,
there will be a reaction from the other side .. There will be an
escalation until things get more calmed down. That's a natural phenomenon."

"If you allow criminals to just run rampant and you allow the drugs
to run rampant, there will be increased violence."

Dr. Wood, head of the B.C. centre's Urban Research Initiative, and
his colleagues came to their conclusions by identifying 15 studies
between 1989 and 2006 that looked at the connection between law
enforcement and drug violence.

Of the 11 that analyzed real-world data -- as opposed to creating
theoretical models -- nine found that variables like more money being
spent on policing or an increase in drug arrests were associated with
increasing levels of violence.

A 2001 Florida study, for instance, found that boosting the rate of
drug busts was linked to a doubling in the risk of violence and
property crime, according to the report.

The phenomenon is illustrated less scientifically in places like
Colombia and Mexico, where drug violence escalated as governments
made aggressive attempts to attack the trade, Dr. Wood said.

For as long as some drugs remain illegal, he said he would not
recommend that police stop trying to enforce the law, or ignore drug
gangs. The only truly effective strategy, though, is to end the
criminal bans, he said.

"In the current situation of prohibition, which enriches organized
crime, we are powerless to reduce the availability of drugs and
meaningfully reduce violence," said Dr. Wood.

Stephen Easton, an economics professor at B.C.'s Simon Fraser
University who has called for legalization of marijuana, said the
report's findings should be heeded closely.

"I think this would certainly contribute to the debate in no
uncertain terms," he said. "I think it needs to be talked about ...
It's not a question of whether you will have illegal drugs, it's a
question of who will make money off it."