U.S.-STYLE DRUG POLICIES WON'T WORK IN CANADA

Re: Maybe we can punish the pushers, Oct. 16.

In her opinion article, Kelly Roesler is willing to examine Stephen
Harper's war-on-drugs policy approach. But Mr. Harper wants to come
across as a tough guy with his government's crackdown on criminals
when he said, "if you sell drugs, we'll punish you." Suppliers do no
not drive markets: consumers do.

We can look at the U.S., with its astronomical prison population and
still exorbitant drug, crime and violence problems, to see evidence
that attempting to reduce crime by cracking down on drug dealers is
preposterous in both theory and practice. In most jurisdictions,
convictions are usually for petty dealers: the big fish are too smart
to get caught or can afford good lawyers if they do. And every bust
of a dealer is a job opening for another venture capitalist to step
in and fill the market void.

Where is society's scorn for tobacco and alcohol "dealers," who also
may not use their own products? If citizens are looking for
alternatives to prohibition, they should check out the work of the
Health Officers Council of British Columbia (www.cfdp.ca/bchoc.pdf),
which advocates regulating the production and distribution of all
psychoactive substances based on principles of public health. Who
would you rather supply addicts: medical health officers or the shady
crook on the corner?

Gillian Maxwell,

Vancouver

Chair, Keeping the Door Open: Dialogues on Drug Use