Pubdate: Wed, 14 Mar 2001
Source: Delta Optimist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2001 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc
Contact:  5485 - 48th Avenue, Delta B.C. V4k 1X2
Website: http://www.delta-optimist.com/
Author: Chris Buors

WAR AGAINST DRUGS IS DOING NOTHING, EXCEPT WASTING TAXPAYERS' MONEY

Editor:

Re: RCMP pulls its officers from Delta police's drug section, March 7

Instead of wasting the taxpayers' money, Mayor Lois Jackson ought to do 
the   right thing and budget zero dollars for the drug section. The RCMP 
offer the best reason why: They have been fighting drugs for over 20 years 
without anything to show, other than 600,000 Canadians now having 
"criminal"  records for the "vice" of taking the wrong social drugs. Drug 
users are sinners, they are not criminals and they are not sick.

When one stops to think about all that prohibition has accomplished in the 
last 93 years, it is plain to see the idea of controlling drugs belongs in 
the realm of totalitarian regimes. The reason is that in order to control 
what substances a free man may ingest, the state must also control what 
ideas he  may put in his head.

So let's measure the "success" of the drug section in Delta. Four full 
time  cops at $60,000 a year and one support staff for paper work, etc. at 
another  $40,000. In the past year there's been 116 people arrested, with 
let's say a modest guess, because no one ever quantifies how much this drug 
war costs,  of five hours of court time per arrest.

With a judge, court reporter, Crown attorney, assorted flunkies, building, 
heat  and incidental paper costs, etc., it would not take long for one 
million tax  dollars to be consumed. For what?

With all the arrests, does anybody really believe there was even a one-day 
shortage of drug supply? Even if all 116 people went to jail forever, at a 
cost  of $50,000 a year, the profits available on the Black Market replaced 
them in a heartbeat.

In liquor speak, what would you do if Elliot Ness busted your supplier's 
still? Brew your own perhaps or would you have a new found respect for the 
law and quit drinking?

Restore our natural right to drugs, all of them. It is a right mankind has 
owned since time began. Canadians are mature enough to make their own drug 
taking decisions and no amount of enforced righteousness is going to change 
that.

Chris Buors
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