PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES

TWO VICTORIES in the
drug war were reported
recently. ;

Any poor sod who went through
a war or two knows enough to
question reports of victories.

“Our troops staged a victorious
retreat from the capital and are re-
grouping for further retreats.”

One drug war victory was a raid
by the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police on money launderers. Four
out of 10 B.C, foreign currency
exchange companies are accused of
money laundering.” :

The second victory was
announced from the United States.
The prison population there tripled
in the last 14 years and half of the

" increase is attributed to parcbtics:
convictions.
. That is a lot of people i in jail.

The U,S.locks-up more than any —

other nation and has sent no less
than 948,881 to the slammer since
1980.

What those of us who remember
other communiques from other
wars would like to know is this: If
we're winning the war, why are
there more drugs available more
cheaply than before we started?

Very few of the people who pay
the bills for this crusade against
drugs go to money launderers them-
selves. They don’t have the money
and what they do have is legal.

They wonder about a trade so
profitable that it can’t find a place
to put the profits. Money launderers
know it.

One of them. according to the
RCMP, charged a 6% premium to
an undercover officer who identi-
fied himself as a drug dealer.

That's almost as much as the
provincial sales tax or the Goods
and Services Tax, and it reminds
the common folk that the drug deal-
ers don’t pay taxes. No GST. no
sales tax and no income tax.

Years ago, after Al Capone was
jailed for income tax evasion in the
U.S., some of our criminals used to
declare criminal carnings and pay
tax on them, in order to escape such
prosecution.

But the government promise to
keep income tax information secret
was broken, as is,usual with gov-
emment promises; and now not one
of them pays tax on one of the most
lucrative trades in‘the nation.

How lucrative? Police estimate -
that British Columbia's marijuana *
crops, grown mostly in basements -
under lights, is the largest agricul- :
tural cash crop in the province.

As for the number of drug deal-.

ers in jail, they amount (o about as
much as the number executed and
dropped into ditches in Surrey.

The removal of a courier, pedlar
or buyer creates a well-paid job
vacancy, People fine up to get the
work.

After more than half'a century of
pouring our tax money into the
great international crusade against
narcotics, they are more readily
available than ever and are cheaper.

High-quality Chinese heroin
sells in Vancouver today lor less
than ever before, The police report
that non-Asians who try to deal in
an olnce or two here can‘t meet the
competition. They are constantly
undercut in price by Asians,

The new. cheaper heroin is so

CINEMA 1
SEPARATE ADMISSION FEATURES

MAVERICK
6:50 pm

RENAISSANCE MAN
9:05

Friday, July 8, 1994 - North Shore News - 9

1e drug war’s finally over: we lost

Paul
St. Pierre

pure that 160 to 170 addicts die
every year from overdoses.

Cocaine is readily available and
the prices never rise, no matter how
many sensational seizures are
announced by our police. Marijuana
has become a cottage industry, the
only cottage indestry in which you
have to find somewhere to hide all
the money you are making.

A report from the Washington
Narcotics Strategy organization,
which you might have overlooked,
has this to report: “Opium and coca
production increased, narcotics traf-
ticking increased and corruption
and program ineffectiveness eroded
potential gains against international
trafficking organization.”

The innocent pay. They pay with

SEPARATE ADMISSION FEATURES

LITTLE BUDDHA
7:00 pm

WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN.
9:10 pm

their taxes and sometimes with their
lives, In this province it's common-
place for some citizen to get
gunned down because he was mis-
taken by some drug pedlar for a
rival.

We went through it all before in
the '20s and °30s when we tried to
prohibit alcohol, an equally impos-
sible task. We get so fast old and so
slow smart. Some day the cost in
public violence, $50,000 a year
prison sentences and deaths of
innocent people in parking lots will
become intolerable and we will quit
the war we cannot win,

Meanwhtile, don’t believe bul-
letins about how we beat the
German army to its knees at
Dunkirk.

CINEMA 3
SEPARATE ADMISSION FEATURES

FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL}
7:10pm ;

BEVERLY HILLS COP It!
9:15 pm

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