LET'S PUT DRUG DEALERS OUT OF BUSINESS

Open Gates: A Column By Jim Gates

Hinton Parklander -- I'm going to venture out on a limb with this column
and express one of my more radical views. Like most radical views, it's not
the ultimate answer that's going to save the world by lunch, but rather one
side of a debate that needs more attention in the public arena.

Drugs should be decriminalized. Not just marijuana, but all of them - both
the soft and hard drugs. I believe this to be the best way reduce drug use
and drug-related crime and even fight international terrorism.

When I say drugs should be decriminalized, I do not mean that drug
traffickers could then open legitimate store fronts down on Switzer Drive
and erect bill boards depicting youthful people with pills on their
out-stretched tongues, accompanied by a caption that reads, 'I take
minute-meth for the best long-lasting high.'

For my ideal drug reduction strategy to work, drugs need to be
monopolistically distributed by the federal government, and not for a profit.

Most crime is drug-related and every organized crime ring is drug based.
Even in Hinton, most people commit break and enters and thefts so they can
get money to buy drugs.

According to statistics from the office of the Solicitor General of Canada,
the street value of the drug trade in Canada is $18 billion annually.

The federal government developed its own strategy for crippling this
lucrative industry. Over the next five years we will spent an additional
$245 million in law enforcement targeting the upper levels of the drug
trade, disrupting organized crime and seizing the proceeds of crime.

I hate to break it to Ottawa, but for every crime ring it destroys, there
is another already trying to take its place. Gangs are lining up to push
their product like brokers on Wall Street fighting to sell plummeting World
Com shares.

Canada could easily take the entire industry out of the hands of criminals.
Crime rings could not compete with Canada if the country was willing to
distribute a product with no intention of turning a profit.

Yet, Canada would profit.

Thousands of drug producers, warehousers and pushers would have to find
legitimate sources of income. Only so many could turn to racketeering,
high-tech cheque fraud and dumping toxic waste. Billions of dollars are
lost from the Canadian economy due to lost productivity from people making
their money in drug markets.

The real question is, would more people do drugs if there were no criminal
consequences for doing them?

I don't think so. I don't do drugs - because they turn people into jittery,
irritable half-wits with little to no social skills and even less reasoning
ability. There's no way I would do drugs just because I wouldn't go to jail
for it.

Many people first experiment with drugs when they are teens. Right now, it
is easier for a teen to buy meth on the street than it is for them to get
their hands on a bottle of Crown Royal.

If drugs could be purchased from a regulated store, and if there were
serious penalties for adults buying drugs for minors, less teens could do
drugs, even if they wanted to.

And as for terrorism, it's no secret that the illegal drug trade funds
terrorism. US president George Bush said it himself:

"It's so important for Americans to know that the traffic in drugs finances
the work of terror, sustaining terrorists, that terrorists use drug profits
to fund their cells to commit acts of murder. If you quit drugs, you join
the fight against terror in America."

The set of laws which govern drugs is called the Controlled Drugs and
Substances Act. Canada should either change the Act's name to the
Out-of-control Drugs and Substances Act, or start doing what the name
implies - controlling the drugs and substances in Canada.