THE DECRIMINALIZATION STRATEGY

Second Thought

The murder of four RCMP officers in Mayerthorpe was a terrible
tragedy. I have tremendous respect for the men and women in our police
services who patrol our highways, protect our communities, and come to
our aid at a moment's notice. It is a tough, stressful, sometimes
dangerous, and often thankless job. We owe them a great deal of gratitude.

While we pause to remember the fallen, we should also take the time to
consider what can be learned from this senseless loss. I have a
personal interest in this issue, as several of our Crime and Community
students at Augustana go on to serve in various police forces across
the country, including the RCMP. I'd like to think that we can salvage
something from this terrible ordeal that will make their work safer.

The Liberal Party should ignore the hysterical rhetoric of reactionary
politicians and continue with its plans to decriminalize marijuana.
The suggestion that marijuana caused these deaths, and worse yet, that
all marijuana users are somehow responsible, is inane and shameful. It
is reminiscent of the outrageous racist comments made by Emily Murphy
in The Black Candle (1922), which suggested that "Aliens of colour"
were pushing their drugs on white Canadians; it reminds one of
exploitation films, such as Reefer Madness (1938), which claimed that
the "killer weed" combined with "evil jazz" would lead to sexual
misconduct, insanity, and homicide. This type of ridiculous and
sensationalistic rhetoric has never encouraged rational discussion
about crime, law, and the social reality of drug use and abuse in
modern societies.

James Roszko, with his gun-fixation and hatred of police, is
ultimately responsible for these murders. He was a very dangerous man
whose life was not that different from many serious offenders. There
were many factors--criminologists refer to them as criminogenic
factors--that contributed to his lengthy history of criminal activity,
including being abused in a foster home as a child. Tougher drug laws
would not have prevented his violent actions. Nor would they have
reduced the availability and use of marijuana in Canada.

We have known for the last 30 years that the war on drugs has been a
complete failure. Despite a long and expensive war, illegal drugs are
still available. Moreover, as a growing number of experts concur, the
intensification of the drug war has served only to make the drug trade
more lucrative, and organized crime and drug trafficking more violent.
The prohibition of illicit goods and services is the lifeblood of much
organized crime. Prohibition of alcohol led to bootlegging and, more
recently, high taxes on cigarettes led to smuggling and illegal sales.
Historically, no form of prohibition has ever been successful.

People turn to drugs either because they want to retreat from
impoverished social conditions and abuse or because, as more people
increasingly admit, they enjoy their casual recreational use. In
either case, these people are unlikely to change their behaviour
through legal force. If we can't keep drugs out of "secure"
institutions like prisons, then how do we expect to keep them out of
an open democratic society with porous borders?

By decriminalizing and eventually legalizing drugs and by controlling
them in the same way we do more dangerous drugs--alcohol and tobacco
kill more people than all the other illegal drugs combined--we will
greatly reduce much of the harm associated with the drug trade.
Scholars working within the field of peacekeeping criminology remind
us that education is much more effective than coercion. Rather than
adopting destructive and ineffective war-like strategies to prevent
people from abusing drugs, we should put our resources into health and
education. These will be far more effective in addressing the problem,
as already demonstrated by the declining rates of tobacco consumption
in developed countries.

It is irresponsible for us to put our police officers into a war they
cannot win. The decriminalization of marijuana remains our best
harm-reduction strategy.

Dr. Geraint Osborne is a professor of sociology at the University
of Alberta's Augustana Faculty.