DRUG TREATMENT WOULD CUT CRIME

The reason for giving drugs free to addicts is not to prolong their
addiction. It is simply to remove the profit motive from the
equation. Drug "pushers" are called pushers for a reason -- it is
their job to get more people hooked in order to increase the size of
their customer base, thereby increasing their profits. If there are
no more millions of dollars to be made in the illicit drug trade, it
will dry up and blow away. No addict is going to pay hundreds of
dollars a day to a dealer if the habit can be controlled in clean
surroundings for free.

Benefits? Well, aside from the obvious benefits to the addicts, and
the greatly increased possibility of getting them into treatment, it
would free up millions of dollars' worth of police time. With the
drug dealers gone the police can use their time for other
community-enhancing tasks. The rate of property crime would fall off
sharply without the addicts' need to make drug-buying dollars any way possible.

Probably the most important result would be the possibility for the
addict to move on to a more constructive life without the constant
need to do anything, legal or not, to keep the drug supply flowing.

John Freeman,

Parksville.