Pubdate: Fri, 27 Feb 2009 Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB) Copyright: 2009 Canoe Limited Partnership. Contact: http://www.edmontonsun.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135 Author: Mindelle Jacobs DRUG TRADE AT HEART OF VIOLENCE When it comes to cracking down on gang crime, two things are certain. The Tories will continue ratcheting up penalties and our gun-happy, drug-running thugs will carry on as usual. Gang killings would bring automatic first-degree murder charges and drive-by shootings -- whether anyone's hit or not -- would mean a minimum four-year sentence under the proposed legislation. Good luck with that. First, you've got to catch the gangsters shooting at each other -- and that doesn't happen very often. Then you've got to prove the killings are gang-related. And guess what? The lowlifes whacking each other in the streets -- especially in B.C.'s Lower Mainland -- don't care what the law says. They're just protecting their illicit business interests which make them fabulously rich. They care not a whit about the consequences of their actions -- whether moral or legal. If an innocent person gets caught in the fray while bullets are flying around, it's considered a mere inconvenience. Gang members don't ponder the prospect of 25 years behind bars -- as opposed to 10 -- before eligibility for parole. They're too busy trying to eliminate the competition. Selling illicit drugs has always been so lucrative and the demand so plentiful that the lure of big money overrules any other considerations. Even if the cops do catch a few big fish in the drug trade and throw them into the clink for a couple of decades, there will be other thugs to take their places. IMPOSSIBLE WAR This impossible war on drugs has prompted both a prominent law professor and the executive director of the John Howard Society of Canada to join the growing list of groups and individuals clamouring for a rethink. "These proposed changes are totally absurd," says University of Toronto criminal law professor Peter Rosenthal. "Nobody would give a damn about the difference between second- and first-degree murder if they're thinking of killing somebody." It's time Ottawa ditched prohibition and regulated illicit drugs in conjunction with education campaigns about the dangers of drugs, he says. "If you want to deal with the drug problem ... education is much better than prohibition, as was decided with respect to alcohol generations ago." Craig Jones, of the John Howard Society of Canada, also dismisses the Tories' new anti-gang legislation and urges our politicians to wrench the drug trade away from criminal gangs. "We choose a form of management that delegates the production, consumption and distribution of drugs to the contest between the cops and organized crime and we say, 'you guys fight it out,' " he says in frustration. "It's highly dysfunctional and it brings with it a lot of violence." He'd like to see drugs regulated and sold, with varying restrictions, depending on their potential for harm. CONSUMPTION ROOMS Vancouver addictions expert Mark Haden, for instance, has proposed that hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine be limited to supervised consumption rooms. Less harmful drugs could be used at home. Drug buyers could be registered and tracked. "The greater evil is shooting it out in the streets between cops and organized crime," says Jones. "What I'm trying to say to Canadians is you can have prohibition but you can't have it for free. You must take the violence." Legalize drugs and watch murder, assaults and robberies plummet. Now that's getting tough on crime. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom