RED ZONE HAS NOT ENDED DRUG TRAFFICKING PLAGUE

There is no doubt that the Red Zone accomplished what it set out to do
in the downtown, but only to the degree of the low level street user
and dealer.

One can still enter most of the bars and nightclubs in the area and
within minutes secure whatever the drug of choice for the evening will
be, the problem is still there but indoors. The Red Zone moved the
problem into residential areas.

With a 30% increase in drug dealing and drug-related crime in 2009 one
has to wonder if dispersing the dealers and addicts was really such a
good idea.

Until the province and feds get off their collective butts and put
funding into detox, treatment and supportive housing for recovering
addicts we will always have a problem.

Unless the incentive is there, what choice is there but to remain
addicted? As long as the penalties for drug trafficking are seen as
little more than a slap on the wrist what motivation is there for change?

Gordon W. Fuller

Nanaimo