NO WAY TO REDUCE CRIME

Re: Drug crime effort ineffective: study (SP, March 24).

The researchers who conducted this in-depth study for the B.C. Centre
for Excellence in HIV/AIDS expected to find that the increased use of
criminal law to suppress the drug trade would decrease violence in
those communities.

They reviewed 306 studies, of which 15 evaluated the impact of the
increased use of criminal law on violence. They reported that
contrary to their primary hypotheses, "most studies found that
increasing drug law enforcement intensity resulted in increased rates
of drug market violence."

They further concluded that gun violence and higher homicide rates
are likely a natural consequence of the increased use of criminal law.

This result is consistent with other research indicating that if
politicians tell you that increasing the use of criminal law can
reduce crime, they only want your vote. They are unconcerned about
your future safety.

They definitely don't want you to know what would make our communities safer.

Kearney Healy

Saskatoon