Pubdate: Fri, 27 Mar 2009 Source: Kamloops Daily News (CN BC) Copyright: 2009 Kamloops Daily News Contact: http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/679 MIDDLE-CLASS USERS FUEL THE DRUG TRADE The gang wars in the Lower Mainland could easily be stopped, but it would take an act of will that most of us may not possess: stop using drugs. Gangs such as the Independent Soldiers thrive by selling illicit drugs such as cocaine. Some of their customers may indeed be the homeless junkies we associate with drug addiction. But their best customers are the ones with the most money: people in the middle class. The police commissioner in New York City noted recently that middle- and upper-class drug users consume 70 per cent of the cocaine used in that city. He refers to them as "the up-trend public - the yuppies, the middle class and the people who in their own heads don't see themselves as doing anything more than just snorting a little cocaine." Here in Canada, a survey by the University of Alberta in 2005-06 found that a variety of middle-class people make a conscious choice to use marijuana as a way of taking their minds off daily stresses and pressures. These are middle-class people who work, for example, in the retail and service industries, in communications, or as health-care and social workers. Then there are the MDMA drugs, commonly referred to as Ecstasy, which are popular mainly among middle-class adolescents. Many teenagers mistakenly believe these drugs are nonaddictive and benign. A common thread throughout the widespread use of drugs by the middle class is the disconnect between the drug use itself and the means by which it is obtained. People are literally dying to ensure a steady supply. We're seeing it on the streets of Vancouver where competition is increasingly intense. What these gangs are fighting over is market share. This violence is nothing new - it's just that it's not usually brought to our attention in such a brutal manner. Working-class neighbourhoods have long had to put up with the low-level violence and general degradation that comes with the drug trade. Middle- and upper-class drug users are generally insulated from the dark side their "recreation" creates in their cities. They also don't have to worry about the impact of ongoing murders, torture and violence occurring among their suppliers in far-off places such as Mexico. The market created by drug users in Canada and the U.S. has become so lucrative that Mexico has been labelled a Narco State - a country where feeding our habits has made corruption common throughout the justice system. So you have a choice. Light up a joint and forget about this nasty business. Or tell the gangs you're no longer interested in their wares. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom