CN BC: OPED: Prohibition of Marijuana Is Responsible for Much of the Gang Violen

Vancouver Sun, 28 Dec 2010 - All of Vancouver has been shocked by the city's increasing gang violence. Sadly, the gunplay on Dec. 12, where 10 people were shot exiting a restaurant on Oak Street, is an occurrence that has become increasingly common in Canadian cities, and gang violence has long been a fact of life in most large U.S. cities. While reasons for gang affiliation are complex, there is no arguing that urban gangs -- and virtually all other well-funded organized crime groups for that matter -- derive their primary source of revenue from the trade in illegal drugs. This violent reality has emerged as an unintended consequence of a more than a half-century long experiment aimed at reducing illegal drug supply through aggressive law enforcement. Remarkably, despite the U.S. taxpayer spending an estimated $2.5 trillion since America's "War on Drugs" was launched by former president Richard Nixon, drugs remain more available today than at any time in our history, while drug market violence has continued to worsen. A recent international example is the upsurge in drug-related violence in Mexico, which has claimed more than 30,000 lives after Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown on the cartels in 2006.

Source: http://mapinc.org/url/FgPFxV8C

sports news news world news