CAN'T WIN WAR ON DRUGS

Regarding Mindy Jacobs' 'Evidence should triumph over ideology on
needle exchange' in the Feb. 3 edition of the Herald-Tribune. In
particular the following:

"Imagine kicking our politicians out of office for a while and
replacing their cowardice and ideological stubbornness with the
evidence-based, straight thinking of experts. ...Pot would have been
legalized long ago. Perhaps a regime would have been set up for the
legal regulation and sale of all drugs based on their potential harm.
.Drug addiction would be considered a health problem, not a criminal
matter. And people who got into trouble with the law because of
addiction would end up in treatment centres, not prison. ...It's a
fantasy, of course."

She's right, of course. What Jacobs describes as a fantasy must, in
fact, take place otherwise, a) organized crime will inevitably amass
enough resources to simply buy whatever they don't control (there is
some evidence of this may be happening already* - a Google search
turns up 519,000 pages for 'corruption in Canada' in 0.15 seconds); b)
youth accessibility to illicit substances will continue unabated ( in
spite of D.A.R.E. and other drug awareness "education" programs and
drug sweeps ); and c) enforcement, judiciary and politicians will
continue the gambit of affecting law and order by being "tough on
crime" while HIV/AIDS transmission runs rampant in all communities
(even to the extent of being transmitted in schools) and the war on
drugs continues unabated.

This, of course, would be the least of the concerns affecting all
communities. Imagine a kill ratio surpassing 15,000 in the province of
B.C. alone (as is currently happening in parts of Mexico). Perhaps by
then cowardice and ideological stubbornness would even appear to be
traits of endearment compared to the level of corruption and chaos
that will have been affected by both police and your typical thug(?)
to say nothing of the judiciary, the "corrections" system and society
in general.

This is the only inevitable outcome that arises from pursuing a "drug
war" (which, ironically, cannot be won ) to its ultimate conclusion.

Wayne Phillips

Communication Director,

Educators For Sensible Drug Policy.

Hamilton, Ont.