Pubdate: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 Source: Province, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2010 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476 Author: Ethan Baron, The Province HARD DRUGS ARE THE SOURCE OF B.C.'S NOTORIETY Solution: We Need To Cut Consumption Of Heroin, Pot, Coke, Meth, Ecstasy, But Legalize Marijuana Whether or not you give credence to the assertion in Maclean's magazine that B.C. is home to half the top 14 crime cities in Canada, it's clear that we do have a crime problem. And the root of the problem is drugs. Pot, coke, heroin, meth, ecstasy and other illicit substances fuel property crime, gang wars and street violence. We pay for these social ills with loss of peace in our communities, with policing costs, with the expenses of putting drug dealers and users through the justice system and in some cases housing them in jail. We can blame the drug producers, we can blame the traffickers, we can blame the consumers, and we'd be right on all counts. We can't do much to change the first two. No matter how much anti-gang education is instilled through schools, no matter how many drug dealers and traffickers are fined or sent to jail, selling illegal drugs is lucrative and there will always be people too lazy and selfish to contribute to society through legitimate jobs. And no matter how much money is spent screening for contraband at border entries and ports, enough drugs to meet the demand will always get through. We need to focus on reducing consumption, and with regard to marijuana - - because the consumption is both domestic and south of the border - we need to take it out of the black market. Although many supporters of drug legalization lump all the substances together, only pot stands up under a cost-benefit analysis. Like coke, heroin, meth and ecstasy, marijuana is frequently abused. But unlike those more dangerous drugs, the abuse appears to do little more than make people stupid in the short term and fuzzy-headed in the long term. The scientific jury's still out on the health effects of abusing B.C.'s provincial weed, but it's clearly far safer than alcohol or tobacco. Next month, Californians may provide us with significant help in reducing the negative impact of B.C.'s pot-growing industry. They'll vote on a state initiative to legalize marijuana for adult recreational use, and tax pot sales. If Proposition 19 passes, the B.C. drug gangs who peddle B.C. bud to California and use the proceeds to import cocaine will lose a major market. That outcome, however, would not be enough to dismantle the multibillion-dollar illegal marijuana-growing economy in B.C. It's not news to anyone that people in this province smoke a lot of pot. Legalizing marijuana in B.C. and regulating it as we do alcohol would not only raise millions in tax revenue, it would take many more millions away from the gangsters and hamper their ability to import coke into B.C. Cutting consumption of hard drugs requires a more complex response, focused on reducing the poverty that drives much of the use of heroin, meth and crack, and educating children and young people about the risks of drug abuse. Legalization is not an appropriate response to drugs for which the price of experimentation can be a devastating, lifelong addiction. The fact that we have no provincial-government campaign to reduce drug use among youth, when the catastrophic personal and societal effects of hard-drug abuse are so visible in all our communities, makes as little sense as outlawing marijuana. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D