SHOOTING SPREE AND DRUG ADDICTION ARE LINKED

Re: Ten wounded in shooting, Dec. 13

Two interesting news items the same day: Another criminal gang
shooting spree on the streets with cars racing from the scene and a
story about a severe shortage of drug addiction rehab beds.

What are citizens to think about options to drug prohibition, which is
clearly spiralling out of control? How about we legalize the soft
drugs, give out free hard drugs at medical clinics and take 100 per
cent of the drug money out of the hands of the organized criminals.

The crime rate would, say, drop in half or two-thirds. To address the
human sorrow of drug addiction we could redeploy the massive savings
in policing costs towards drug rehabilitation facilities. Who would
object? Oh ... it's the drug dealers and the policing organizations
who top the list against this idea.

Greg Harms

Vancouver