OPINION: LEGALIZING DRUGS COULD SOLVE A LOT OF OUR PROBLEMS

Whether you realize it or not, social policies--indeed, all government
policies--are a form of experiment. Like a proper experiment, their
hypotheses have certain assumptions at their core and certain strategies,
methods and instruments at their disposal. Time and human interaction
provide the necessary lab work and, ideally, at some point past which the
data has become conclusive, the experiment is deemed either a success or a
failure--its methods have either produced the desired effect or they have not.

So after having four Mounties shot on a raid that had nothing to do with
marijuana, Anne McLellan is now recommending mandatory minimum sentences
for anyone caught growing. What she doesn't seem to realize, or is
unwilling to accept, is that the experiment has been an abysmal failure.
The strategy of combatting drug use and addiction using the cumbrous and
imprecise tools of criminal law was a poor one at its conception, and is
unlikely to improve with still more time. By acting on instinct and reflex,
and by neglecting to examine the outcome and the silent assumptions of the
war on drugs, she has failed to provide a solution, and has failed all
Canadians.

The most obvious reason to change the way we combat drug abuse is that our
current methods don't work. Despite massive increases in police budgets,
feverish governmental attention and widespread creation of drug-control
task forces, the supply and sale of illegal narcotics are unchecked;
indeed, largely unaffected. This fact alone should merit a rejection of the
experiment's hypotheses and a re-examination of its assumptions.

Our drug-control efforts have also been extremely costly and socially
destructive. Billions of dollars are spent annually either directly or
indirectly to "control" the drug trade, with precious little tangible
result. Prison space, law enforcement wages and equipment, judiciary costs,
port and border security--the costs of our experiment are exceptional.
Privacy and individual rights and freedoms are often abused in drug
investigations, while the messages that we are fed about the overwhelming
dangers of drugs promote an atmosphere of helplessness and fear.

An extremely serious but often overlooked consequence of narcotics
prohibition is crime. It is not drugs that lead to crime, but their
illegality. The rise and proliferation of organized criminal bodies fed by
drug-trade profits is a recognized and obvious consequence of prohibition.
Less obvious, though, is the immense volume of robberies, assaults and
other commonplace crimes that are directly attributable to our anti-drug
efforts.

Because both the product and its suppliers are actively hunted by police,
and because some of the product is taken out of the market through
seizures, prices for narcotics are astonishingly high. For some, the cost
to support their habit is hundreds or thousands of dollars a week. Yet,
because traditional employment is insufficient to meet the need, and
because the need is so great, they will turn to illegal activity to satisfy
it. Theft, prostitution and even some drug trafficking are attributable not
to the mind-altering influence of drugs, but to their high prices.

Is the answer, then, for the government to provide cheap, high-quality
narcotics? Perhaps. But we won't know with certainty until we run the
experiment. All we can say with assurance at the moment is that attempting
to stop the use and trade of drugs with legal penalties is not only
ineffective, but flagrantly counterproductive.

We are being shamefully ignorant and naive if we believe that increased law
enforcement presence and more stringent laws are serving to cure this, or
any, social malady. The need for a large and rigorous police body is a
symptom of a decaying society, not a solution to it. The data is in, and
they damn our methods unequivocally. If we are to solve these problems we
must have a more sophisticated approach, rooted in the conclusions of
previous social experiments. So get our your lab coat, Anne, and don your
protective goggles. You'll need them.