Pubdate: Wed, 22 Nov 2006
Source: 100 Mile House Free Press (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 100 Mile House Free Press
Contact:  http://www.100milefreepress.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2143
Author: Tom Fletcher
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

CUT THE CRIME RATE: LEGALIZE DRUGS

Last week's column touched on crime rates around the  province, which 
the B.C. government tracks by health  region.

If you look at violent crime, serious property crime  and 
non-cannabis drug crime, the safest place to live  in B.C. is 
Vancouver Island. Next best is the Interior  region, which 
encompasses the Kootenays, Okanagan and  Cariboo.

In the middle of the pack is the Fraser region, the  largest in the 
province by population, extending from  Burnaby through the Fraser 
Valley to Hope.

Second worst is the vast Northern region, which  includes roughly the 
top two thirds of the province.  And the highest serious crime rates 
are in Vancouver  Coastal, which includes Vancouver, Richmond, the 
North  Shore and Sunshine Coast.

The good news is that the rate of serious crime has  been going

down in most parts of the province, the exception being  the North, 
where serious crime went up by more than  eight per cent from 2001 to 2004.

The bad news, as I'm reminded by a new discussion paper  just 
released by the B.C. Progress Board, is that  despite improvements in 
recent years, B.C. still ranks  in the top third of Canadian 
provinces in all categories of major crime. We also have more 
property  crime per capita than the neighbouring states 
of  Washington and Oregon.

The discussion paper, prepared by Simon Fraser  University 
criminology professors Robert Gordon and  Bryan Kinney, contains some 
provocative suggestions.  When it comes to illegal drugs, for 
example, the professors conclude that B.C. has only three choices:

1. Lobby the federal government to legalize the drug  trade, 
controlling it as tobacco and alcohol are  regulated today.

2. Eliminate the organized criminal drug trade by way  of a major 
expenditure in new police teams, legislation  targeting money 
laundering and proceeds of crime,  increased penalties and 
construction of new jails.

3. Combine options one and two, with a crackdown on  organized crime 
followed by a phased-in  decriminalization and legalization.

Of course the Conservative government in Ottawa will embrace 
legalization about  the same time Hell opens for public skating. 
Stephen  Harper is reputed to be a libertarian at heart, but his 
justice and public safety posse, Vic Teows and Stock  Day, are 
hang-aEem high "social conservatives" who  were appointed to play to 
the party's older support  base and would likely only support 
increased drug  penalties.

(As a small-L libertarian myself, I disagree with that  approach, but 
it's preferable to the previous  government, which repeatedly 
promised to decriminalize  pot but never followed through.) The 
criminologists argue that legalizing drugs isn't likely to 
increase  demand much more. If people want drugs in today's  society 
they will find a way to get them, or  manufacture even worse 
substitutes like crystal meth.

Nearly all the street crime, the car and house  break-ins that 
ordinary people are all too familiar  with, is perpetrated in the 
pursuit of drugs. As for  violent crime, if you take away the 
drug-related  shootings and stabbings, you're left mainly with those 
crimes of passion

The report warns that there is a fourth option, which  is to maintain 
the status quo. For B.C. that

means continuing to have Canada's most lenient courts,  which 
combines with a relatively benign climate to make  B.C. the 
destination of choice for Canada's  sophisticated criminals.

As things stand, B.C. currently has twice the rate of  drug crime as 
any other province. And since  legalization is currently not a viable 
option  politically, the practical choice would be to increase 
sentences for major drug crime.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman