IS THIS THE ANSWER?

Legalizing Street Drugs: Bold Move Could Starve Gangs, Respected
Author Argues

His childhood initiation into drugs and gangsterism has done little to
harden the 18-year-old.

"T's" boyhood face is easily traceable in a pair of dark, round eyes,
a frank gaze and wide, cheeky grins.

But while his classmates were learning their multiplication tables,
8-year-old T (who asked to be identified only by his first initial)
was smoking and dealing weed.

T's conversation is peppered casually with urban street talk, calling
his crew members affectionately by the epithet "n-----" and a female
reporter respectably by addressing her as "Miss."

"In Toronto, it's just every man for himself," he said
matter-of-factly.

If anyone's able to comment authoritatively on a bold proposal that
hits shelves today on street gang and drug control, it's him.

The pitch in question is outlined in a new book by Michael Chettleburgh
called Young Thugs: Inside the Dangerous World of Canadian Street Gangs. His
pitch: Starve gangs of their oxygen -- drug money -- he says, and legalize
drugs.

Is he on crack?

Chettleburgh's idea could easily be dismissed as harebrained were it
not for the fact that he literally wrote the book on street gangs
across Canada in 2002 -- the first of its kind.

Commissioned by the federal government to write the 2002 Canadian
Police Survey on Youth Gangs, Chettleburgh gave a sweeping look at
street gangsterism which he'll be updating later this year.

And he's ready for the backlash.

Taking a Gamble

"I took a chance. I dared to be right and wrong," Chettleburgh said in
his Markham office. "Really, what I want to do is get people talking
about this.

"I suspect this will affect me professionally. I fully expect that,
but that's OK. But it ain't working the way it is now."

Prohibitions don't work, he points out, citing the alcohol prohibition
in the U.S. which led to an underground economy. Smoking kills five
times the number of deaths caused by car accidents, suicides, drug
abuse, murders and AIDS combined. And there are 30% more alcohol
abusers than there are drug dependents.

Legalize marijuana first, and then categorize drugs according to their
toxicity levels and drug capture ratio -- how easily addictive the
substance is -- Chettleburgh said. Drug consumption will never go
away. Regulating the industry would assure product quality, reducing
the chances of overdose and poisoning. If users were forced to pay a
sin tax, taxpayers would no longer have to foot the bill for their
health costs, he argues. And most of all, legalizing drugs would strip
kids of their primary business and ideally reduce gang activity.

But T shakes his head violently in disagreement. Even if there were no
longer a drug market, the element that binds a gang is his crew, he
said.

"They're there for me. It's love man," said the teen who identifies
himself as Crip. "They show you love."

T has seen a lot for 18. He's seen the inside of a jail cell, when he
was charged for drug trafficking, dealing crack. When he was 12, his
13-year-old friend was shot in the face on his way home from school in
a case of mistaken identity.

The Root of the Problem

The common denominator among gangbangers is their social condition,
said Andrew Bacchus, project coordinator for Breaking the Cycle, a
youth gang exit program in greater Toronto which T has joined.

"We need to get to the root cause of issues. Establish relationships
with youth, families and provide basic needs, food and clothing," said
Bacchus.

Legalizing drugs would be akin to legalizing guns, Bacchus added,
pointing to the U.S. as an example of lax gun control and rampant gun
crime.

In another conversation, T draws attention to his scuff-free, brown,
$140 Timberland boots, holding his feet aloft to show them off.

"I want a girlfriend, I want to look good. I don't want to hurt
someone for money. So if someone wants to get high and I have weed,
we're both good. I get the money, you get high," said T.

He's tried to get legitimate jobs, but he's a marked man, T says,
who's not often given a chance to prove himself. So he returns to what
he knows.

It's a risky business, but one that subsidizes the dreams of young men
full of machismo: The latest fashions and the prettiest girls often
glamourized in hip hop videos. But don't make the mistake of blaming
hip hop culture for gangster activity, Chettleburgh stresses in the
book.

Dispelling Myths

Kids don't cite music videos as the reason they sign on, he writes.
It's the camaraderie, the rite of passage to manhood and the lucrative
drug trade that lures them in.

"It has a limited effect. It may influence they way kids act once they
join a gang, but it's too convenient and dishonest an argument," he
said.

The book dispels myths and presages certain outcomes. It's not the
urban centres or black gangs that are proliferating, but aboriginal
gangs in prairie provinces that have seen dramatic numbers, said
Chettleburgh.

The book strikes at the darkness of some of the toughest street gangs,
like ruthless beatings including an Ottawa girl raped repeatedly with
a hot curling iron.

Chettleburgh relays watching three 8-year-old girls deal crack in a
"drive-by" pick-up in Winnipeg and points to a picture of his own
8-year-old daughter.

"I would rather a middle-class suburbanite go somewhere else to buy
legal crack than from three (kids on the street). That's the choice
I'd rather be faced with," said Chettleburgh.

One wonders what the outcome would have been for 8-year-old T as well.