Better drugs laws will cut gun crime

[Ferre]

This article got my attention and what it says makes sense to me somehow:

 

Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2003 19:42:37 -0800

From: "D. Paul Stanford" <stanford@crrh.org>

Subject: 003 UK: Better drugs laws will cut gun crime

 

From: "Paul Chang" <paul_chang@cwjamaica.com>

 

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From: ccguide.org.uk <alun@ccguide.org.uk>

To: <ccguide-news@ccguide.org.uk>

Sent: Thursday, January 09, 2003 6:47 AM

Subject: [ccguide-news] Subj: Better drugs laws will cut gun crime

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,27...,871188,00.html

 

Better drugs laws will cut gun crime

 

Let's recognise reality and start selling the stuff at off-licences

 

Mo Mowlam

Thursday January 9, 2003

The Guardian

 

A series of gun-related crimes is reported in the press over the last week

and, as sure as night follows day, we have an immediate response from the

government that it is going to bring forward legislation to increase the

penalty for possessing a gun. At a time when our prisons are straining at

the seams we have a headline-grabbing policy which may in the short term

look good, and in the medium term will probably be either irrelevant or

counter-productive. On top of this it is announced that the prime minister

is going to take personal control of a new crusade against guns. Visas will

monitor Jamaicans travelling to the UK, and instant deportation will face

asylum seekers found in possession of such weapons.

First, let's put this into perspective: a Metropolitan police spokesman has

said that gun-related crime only accounts for 0.003% of all crimes they deal

with. Yes, it would appear that gun crime is increasing, but from a very

small base. It is not a time to panic. Also we should remember that most gun

crime relates to the illegal drugs trade, which is mainly controlled by

foreign gangs, for whom guns are a regular part of the business. Drug

dealers have been shooting each other for some time, without the media and

Home Office attention suddenly being lavished upon them.

 

Admittedly there are changes occurring in the gangs that dominate this

market. It would seem that at the moment there are a number of Kosovans

moving in on the UK. This, though, probably has far more to do with US and

UK military action in Kosovo (where defeat of the Serbs has facilitated drug

running through the Balkans) and Afghanistan (where defeat of the Taliban

has led to the extensive production of heroin again) than with the UK's

sentencing laws for gun possession. The increase in gun crime is a byproduct

of the level of organised crime that we are allowing to fester within our

society - an organised crime business that is being fuelled by our

wrongheaded laws relating to drugs.

 

The film Some Like It Hot has a scene when one Chicago gang is gunned down

by another. The film is a comedy, drawing humour from the absurdity of the

years of prohibition in the US, when alcohol was made illegal. Of course

this did not stop drinking, it merely pushed it underground. The bar was

replaced with the speakeasy. The legitimate supplier of booze was replaced

by the gangster. A whole new criminal element was added to society that not

only corroded the drink business, but also brought intimidation, violence

and corruption into previously clean activities, for example in the rise of

protection rackets. Today we laugh at films that portray that era, while

ignoring the reality of such a situation existing and growing within our own

society.

 

Drugs in this country are almost more freely available than alcohol: their

supply is not constrained by licensing laws, large numbers of people smoke

marijuana, particularly teenagers and young people, and a lot also take

ecstasy and cocaine. They are not criminals; they are people you know. They

are people who are likely to be sitting next to you at work, or living in

your homes. But all these people are being brought into almost daily contact

with organised crime. Isn't this a most foolish situation?

 

Please can we begin to hear some good sense from No 10 and the Home Office,

and let's start looking at how drugs can be legalised and our society can be

decriminalised. Let's recognise reality and start to reduce the numbers who

are cluttering up our prisons. Let's start selling drugs through outlets

such as off-licences, where the likelihood of dealing with someone holding a

gun is virtually zero, unlike the street traders of today. Let's admit that

we are getting it wrong, by allowing our fear and prejudice against certain

drugs to drive us to pursue wrongheaded policies which only produce damaging

social results.

 

When I was in government I visited Jamaica to see the harm the cocaine trade

is doing to that country. It is a staging post between Colombia, where the

cocaine is manufactured, and the UK and US, where it is consumed. Jamaica is

a poor country with a fragile economy; its people are easily exploited by

the drug barons, who often pay for the services of mules and other smugglers

with the drug itself. That further ruins their employees' wretched lives and

the society they live in. Jamaica, like many other countries around the

world, is a victim of our laws.

 

The drug business thrives on demand from the developed world, a demand we

are not properly controlling through legalisation. That leads to increasing

lawlessness and corruption in our own countries, but also harms innocent

countries such as Jamaica. That is the outrage that we should be focusing

our attention upon.

 

=B7 Mo Mowlam was in Tony Blair's cabinet from 1997-2001 and was responsible

for the government's drugs policy from 1999-2001

 

MoMwlm@aol.com