I am writing in response to Gary Huntbatch’s letter entitled “Never enough police or money for war on drugs.”
I acknowledge that in some ways, Mr. Huntbatch’s concerns are justified. Managing finances will always be an important matter for governments, especially when it comes to policing and working against drug use.
However, I feel that Mr. Huntbatch may be jumping to some serious conclusions about the severity of cities’ expenses regarding drug-control and the measures they are ready to undertake to secure their finances.
To begin with, I’m curious as to what grounds Mr. Huntbatch has to claim that the government is planning to privatize prisons like in the U.S.A. For my part, I genuinely hope he is making a prediction, because his description of the “slave prisons” in the U.S.A. sounds very negative. Even more negative is his description of a property in Malibu being seized by the government merely for the sake of money.
This example of government violence and desperation strikes me as dramatic and unlikely, and I can’t help but question how it pertains to his critique of the current state of the B.C. government.
Furthermore, I’m not sold on his idea to follow the Netherlands’ lead and decriminalize some drugs.
Drug use is dangerous whether it is considered a crime or not, yet it is the criminal nature of drug use that inhibits a great number of people from abusing these substances.
If certain drugs were made legal, it is likely that the number of addicts would increase.
True, they wouldn’t be considered criminals and therefore would cost less money for the governments in courts, policing and prisons – instead, the cost would be the well-being of many people.
Lastly, I have to agree with Mr. Huntbatch when he states that our system is flawed. I don’t think any intelligent system of government could claim to be perfect.
Still, this doesn’t mean it’s terrible, and it certainly doesn’t mean we should call it a lost cause for struggling to win against drug use.
Mackenzie Lee