ILLEGALITY OF RECREATIONAL DRUGS PERPETUATES ORGANIZED-CRIME PROFITS

Re: "We must battle organized crime," editorial, April 16.

The single most effective action the government could take to battle
organized crime is to cut the gangs' cash flow by legalizing and
regulating the production and sale of recreational drugs.

The Harper government, unfortunately, persists in following a
strategy that never has, and never will, work because it is
illegality itself that perpetuates the profits of organized crime.

The most likely outcomes of tougher sentences are higher prices,
drawing more people into the trade, and even more violence as gangs
battle one another.

Jailing dealers merely opens up territory for other dealers to move
into. Many politicians are afraid to support legalizing drugs for
fear of seeming to "condone" their use, but until they admit that the
Criminal Code is the wrong kind of law to control a medical-social
problem, criminal gangs will continue to flourish, and our civil
liberties will be threatened.

Elizabeth Woods,

Victoria.