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.