CRIME EXPLOSION

So now violent crime has shot up, and everyone's scratching their heads - too many guns, too few police. Sure, but what's the real cause? It's a little business that's very lucrative, and very dangerous, but the money is worth the risk to some. And violence just happens to be one of the ingredients.

Just how long has the establishment been pushing to get drugs off the streets? Whatever the number, it's been an abysmal failure; the street drug business keeps growing. Faster than the stock market, bigger than Microsoft or Google. Why? Because there are enormous profits to be made, that buy anything from jewelry to big cars, to bank accounts and villas in the Caymans. To paraphrase a small town Police Chief: "They improve the quality of life - for the drug dealers."

But our quality of life? We, who are not part of the drug dealing or taking world, most of whom couldn't care less about those who deal or take drugs until it affects us personally, are saddled with the burden of investigating, catching and putting away these people, at an astronomical cost, pouring money down a rathole for police, drug task forces, helicopters, incarcerating offenders at a cost of some $40,000 per year each, in a losing war where children gun down children for profit. The opportunity to make big bucks selling drugs is too tempting for kids who might otherwise have to work at some minimum-wage legitimate job. The cost of incarceration is only for the ones who are caught selling or buying. To that add the costs of pre-incarceration, from investigating to arresting and trying each case. Moreover, among those who are yet to be arrested, big money we cannot touch still flows from hand to hand.

Of course we want to protect our own children, friends, relatives, co-workers et al. But that's not a matter of stopping the flow of drugs, because once one source is eliminated, two others pop up. Any high school kid knows how to get drugs. Just go to the right people and they go to the right people, and voila! You got pot. The pot guy knows a coke guy, that guy knows a crack guy, that guy knows a smack, or ecstasy, or speed or whatever guy... The key to preventing drug use is education, not incarceration. All that money that is spent on pushing drugs off the streets could be spent on serious education programs to immerse everyone into what the drug culture is all about, why and how to avoid it.

To eliminate the drug trade, the enormous profits must be removed. After all, why should an undereducated "unemployed" teen be able to drive around in a new Lexus or Mercedes, just because he's brave enough to flaunt his business in the face of the law? Answer: Because it's where the money is.

Oh boy, helicopters with spotlights. Duh, any minimally intelligent rodent can figure that out. you go where the light doesn't shine; if you hear the chopper coming, you hide. It's not rocket science. Nor is buying low and selling high. Oh sure, there are undercover cops risking their lives to ferret out dealers, that's just one "business cost." Meanwhile, taxpayers have high crime, speeding police cars, cops battering into homes, search warrants, low-flying aircraft disturbing the peace. All that money that is made in selling drugs and in the catching and jailing of those who deal and take drugs could be put to use: better schools, better services, more responsive government, lower taxes.

The solution is to make drugs legal. Not just de-criminalized, but legal, sold just like liquor (Remember Prohibition? It's deja vu all over again) in state-run or taxed liquor stores. Thus, money is made two ways: In heavily participating in the profits, and in eliminating expensive enforcement of ineffective drug laws. "Oh, that makes the state a drug dealer," you say. Well, isn't that already true in the case of alcohol and tobacco products? If drugs were legal, their potency could be regulated - if you're a drug user, who would you rather buy from, the street dealer who might cut or lace the product with an unknown substance, or a store where the quality is regulated (Think Len Bias, River Phoenix or anyone who died from an overdose); and the age of buyers could be restricted. Quality or age restriction is not a choice we outside of the drug culture have to make, but surely one that is a major factor in the milieu of the drug taker.

The way to get drugs off the streets is to take drugs off the streets. Literally. As long as there are human beings, there will be drugs. Just watch the evening news, and you'll see ads for drugs from Adderall to Zoloft. Y'know - "Ask your doctor if _______ is right for you." At least with legal drugs, there is some control. But on the streets, no control beyond what overworked, over-matched drug law enforcement can muster.

Henry Francisco, Special to

The Port Whitman Times