SOLUTIONS DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD

Our politicians need to get out more. Specifically, those who believe
the solution to downtown Toronto's crime problem is to encourage crack
use and ban handguns.

These politicians -- from Prime Minister Paul Martin to local
councillors like Kyle Rae, who should know better -- need to spend
more time on the streets talking to the real people who are being hurt
by the debilitating drug trade and the turf wars between the criminal
gangs who control it.

Or they could just read articles like those by the Sun's Rob Lamberti
and Alex Urosevic, whose two-part feature on the crack problem around
Cabbagetown was published yesterday and Sunday. Lamberti and Urosevic
followed community response unit cops in 51 Division as they broke up
suspected drug deals and responded to the cries of innocents whose
lives are being wrecked by the rampant crime.

A terrified woman in a St. James Town highrise told of how dealers
have taken over her apartment and turned it into a crack house. They
all have guns and she is powerless to throw them out of her home.

An 84-year-old Cabbagetown woman recounted how a crack addict invaded
her home, demanded money, roughed her up and stole her VCR. It wasn't
the first time he shook her down for drug money and she fears he'll be
back.

Area residents have complained repeatedly about drug deals being done
openly on their streets around the clock and gang grafitti and gunfire
scarring their neighbourhood. They see the same people committing the
same crimes over and over -- occasionally jailed, but then let back
right back out again.

"All these drug dealers are carrying guns," police told the Sun,
noting cops "can't keep up" with all the crack houses.

All this misery should be a clear call to action for our leaders. Yet
local officials are pushing a drug strategy (still before council)
that will increase the distribution of "safer crack use kits" and may
even establish city-funded sites where addicts can use the drug at
will. What's wrong with this picture?

Such efforts are known as "harm reduction" strategies. Yet the
evidence on Cabbagetown streets these days suggests the opposite --
that crack supply, demand and all the hell that goes with it are only
on the increase.

As for the dealers, well, wait 'till they find out the PM is banning
their guns! That'll fix everything, won't it?