Pubdate: Wed, 11 Jul 2012
Source: Morning Star, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 The Morning Star
Contact:  http://www.vernonmorningstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1352
Author: G.C. Robertson

A LACK OF COMMON SENSE

There's always something in the news about illegal drugs and the
struggle society is having with dealing with them. I said this 40
years ago and I've said it many times since, legalization is the only
cure.

All of the money spent and pain caused by the war on drugs has netted
us nothing but more of the same. When I go downtown here in little old
Vernon, I see too many people strung out on drugs and/or alcohol.

Some are old, some are young, all are a burden on the taxpayer. They
lead pain-filled lives and often cause harm to others in their
never-ending search for the means to their end, getting high. They beg
on the street, they steal, they break and enter, they prostitute
themselves, beat on one another and often unrelated others, sometimes
bad enough to send them to the hospital. They get picked up by the
police and ultimately go through the courts which costs we, the people.

Sometimes they're sent to jail, adding even more to the bill. Usually
jail time is fruitless and causes no change in these people. Most of
them beg a modest or sometimes, not so modest stipend from the
government which, even when they have children, usually gets spent on
more drugs. It's almost as if we are paying them to be drug addicts.
It is a pitiful, sordid mess and still we perpetuate it. It's like a
silly soap opera which never ends and has no solution because the
problems are the reason for the soap opera in the first place. There
is absolutely no common sense at work here.

Every one of these people on the street area already hooked. They are
already the problem. Legalization will not make a difference to them.
All it will do is make them less of a menace.

Some will even work when they aren't on the hunt for their drug of
choice. Furthermore, legalization will actually give us some power
over the problem. Common sense tells me that once it's out of the
hands of the pushers, there will be no point in these people selling
the product.

There will probably always be people that will use these substances.
Some will try them, use them for awhile then quit and move on to more
substantial pursuits. Some will become habitual users. Nobody knows
who will go where with it, but obviously these drugs are here to stay.
Legalization won't make them go away but we can save a whole lot of
pain and money by allowing them easy access to a clean, reasonably
priced product that would pay the government to produce. It's that
sensible.

There is a hunger deep within our society that these substances
address. This is what we need to look at. Let us stop fighting
something that has come to stay and learn how to reduce its size and
manage it rather than futilely trying to eradicate it. I'm positive
that somewhere in here we would develop preventative power. We can
learn the real reasons why people get hooked, then we could start
addressing the root.

It is a huge problem and there aren't any simple answers, but there
are answers if we're ready to look for something that will work. I
truly believe that we, the people, could sort this out to the benefit
of all concerned.

G.C. Robertson
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MAP posted-by: Matt