DRUG INVESTIGATOR MISSES BIGGER ISSUES

Albany drug investigator John Burke has been highly critical of David
Soares' steroid bust, based on assertions that steroid users are not
on street corners, are not carrying weapons and are not shooting at
one another.

Burke is missing a few things in the bigger picture. First, most of
Albany County's narcotic drug users are using them safely and
comfortably in their own homes and dorm rooms, buying them from
friends, co-workers, relatives and other acquaintances. They are not
shooting anyone, carrying weapons or otherwise causing problems.
Second, Burke fails to recognize that, contrary to resolving the
problem, legal repression of the drug trade can never succeed in
reducing drug problems, and that by forcing these products into the
black market, he engenders the problems of violence that he
simultaneously decries.

There is a tremendous amount of money involved, but that market is
governed by social customs (usually followed) backed by violent
retribution for offenses, given the absolute lack of recourse to more
civil means of dispute resolution.

Perhaps the greatest evidence for this reality is the fact that Burke
has been doing this for 35 years. He says he makes 400 arrests every
year, and takes thousands of dollars of drugs off the street.

Maybe he has not had the time in the last few decades to think it
through, but maybe -- just maybe -- the narcotics industry has
factored these losses into its operating overhead, and the real
kingpins do not care how many kids trying to make a buck Burke and
his police send to prison.

Adam Scavone

Saratoga Springs