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.