Pubdate: Thu, 12 Mar 2009 Source: Prince George Citizen (CN BC) Copyright: 2009 Prince George Citizen Contact: http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/350 Author: Bruce Strachan Note: Bruce Strachan is a former B.C. cabinet minister and Prince George city councillor. His column appears Thursdays. Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) BARELY ILLEGAL As Canadian gang violence escalates, is it time to legalize the narcotics trade? It probably is, but it won't happen. At the outset, let me say today's piece was prompted by a recent article in The Economist referred to me by a physician friend; all aided and abetted by the lively online discussion following last week's column on gang crime. From the perspective of controlling crime and saving lives, legalizing mood-altering drugs makes a lot of sense. Those drugs are cannabis, opium (heroin) and cocaine. But politically, the notion of legally-sold narcotics has the same chance of survival as the latest Lower-Mainland gunshot fatal, which is DOA, if not sooner. To begin with the argument for legalization, The Economist article uses the experience of the United States and its failed prohibition against alcohol. By way of a brief snapshot; prohibition in the U.S. lasted from 1913 to 1933, had little influence on the consumption of alcohol, but richly rewarded suppliers of the prohibited product. Why? Well as Willie Sutton said when asked why he robbed banks, "Because that's where the money is." When prohibition ended in the U.S., former bootleggers quickly found that illegal drugs were more profitable than alcohol. Those now-unemployed booze-peddlers were entrepreneurial people; they had an effective distribution network, they had inroads to a customer base and they knew how to market. Following World War Two, and right in sync with the growing international economy, the illegal narcotics trade took off and is now reckoned by UN studies to be a $320-billion worldwide industry. Are we winning the drug war? No. The U.S. spends $40 billion a year attempting to eliminate the drug trade; it locks up half a million of its citizens a year for drug crimes, yet there's no evidence of any reduction in illegal drug use. Given this dismal outcome it would make sense to draw on our experience from the failed alcohol prohibition exercise in the U.S. and legalize the product. Let government agencies control the distribution and set the price. By doing this we solve two problems. One, there's no money in the game for organized crime; and two, drug addiction shifts from being a law-and-order problem to a public-health issue. Which is no doubt why my MD buddy suggested the article. Drug addiction is a terrible problem. Just picture some poor whacked-out doper turning tricks for the next hit, a regular happening on streets throughout the world including ours in Prince George. It's not a nice picture. Legalizing the narcotics trade would go along way to solving that problem. The addict would still be hooked, but she - or he - wouldn't be hooked on hooking. Instead, they could turn their attention to seeking help, not out hustling for the next score. Which leads us to the political question. Would the Canadian government legalize the drug trade? Not too likely. The Economist article makes the point that politicians love to promise a drug-free world. A proclamation of innocence all wrapped up in trust me, I can protect you from evil. The problem being, they can't deliver. They never could. The Harper government, overly religious in nature, would faint away at the prospect of allowing demon drugs to be sanctioned and sold legally. The larger problem for legalizing narcotics in Canada would the U.S. reaction. You can bet any move to decriminalize hard drugs in Canada would cause the U.S. to construct a border making the former Berlin Wall look like a picket fence. U.S. politicians take great delight in wrapping themselves in fundamentalist fervour, and even with an annual $40 billion wasted expenditure on the drug war, they're loath to admit the country has a problem. Until we change our strategy, the drug problem will continue. It will kill our troops in the poppy fields of Afghanistan, ruin the lives of thousands of Canadians, cost billions to fight and remain unstoppable. We have a war on drugs and drugs are winning. They always have. This war can be won, but only if we have the courage to realize our current tactics and policies are terribly and fatally flawed. Bruce Strachan is a former B.C. cabinet minister and Prince George city councillor. His column appears Thursdays. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin