Province wasting money trying to end gun violence
By Lethbridge Herald on March 18, 2023.
Editor:
On Wednesday March 6, the Alberta government announced that it would invest $4.4 million to combat gangs and gun violence in the province.
It is well known that almost all gun violence involving gangs is the result of the drug trade. The drug trade works the same as any legitimate business: supply and demand. For the most part governments are fighting the supply side at an enormous cost and nothing to show for.
Here are some figures: the U.S. government about 50 years ago announced that they would crack down on drug trafficking. They called it the war on drugs. It’s estimated that on average the U.S. is spending approximately $51 billion per year and have spend approximately $1 trillion so far since they started the war on drugs, so it’s obvious that they are not winning the war.
Canada is spending approximately $500 million annually fighting the movement of illicit drugs and the use of it. So what do we have to show for it? Is the drug trade being eliminated because of this enormous amount of money spent fighting this war on drugs?
I think it’s quite obvious that we are losing this war. The Alberta government is adding another $4.4 million to the fight. It will employ some more police officers, they will make a few arrests, get some headlines and the war goes on.
So what if we had spent all those trillions of dollars trying to eliminate the demand side of this issue? After all, if there is no demand there is no supply, problem solved, no more trafficking in drugs, no more gun violence!
Now I know that is a dream, but still, think of the $500 million Canada is spending every year fighting gangs moving drugs and killing people and use that money instead to help the people depending on these drugs to become drug-free and lead productive lives.
Here is another sobering statistic: Substance abuse is costing Canada approximately $40 billion per year and that includes the use of alcohol and tobacco.
Alberta Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis’ announcement to add another $4.4 million to the war on drugs in my opinion is a total waste of money, but hey, it looks like they are doing something about the problem. Then again various governments and celebrities are now openly promoting gambling and we all know that gambling goes hand-in-hand with drugs alcohol and gang violence.
And the beat goes on.
Barney Feenstra
Lethbridge
14-13
In other words stick your head in the sand, like Reformers, do and bash Trudeau for trying to keep assault rifles and hand guns out the hands of criminals, and waste taxpayers money on creating your own solution that won’t work. I fully agree Barney. The lawyers and police officers in my world are furious with these reform party idiots for not working together with Trudeau and Singh in finding a proper solution. But then you can bet it’s all about using it as an excuse to fill their supporters pockets with taxpayers money so they will fill theirs at election time, isn’t it? Like giving Preston Manning $2.2 million to try to find an excuse to blame health care workers for the Covid disaster that they created by not listening to doctors. My friends are wondering how much of that money will end up back in the UCP hands, don’t you? We saw it happen under the Klein era with Stockwell Day. Don’t forget these are same fools who want to kick out the RCMP, at a huge cost to taxpayers, and create their own police force so they can use it against people who refuse to support them, another major concern of ours. Dumping a $170 million dollar a year payment from Ottawa to help pay for the police and forcing taxpayers to foot the bill, and putting thousands more people out of work is just plain stupid , but they don’t care do they?
Now watch these mindless fools, that support them, attack me for being smarter than them. They can’t handle the truth they aren’t man enough.
We have spent this weekend going to grandson’s hockey games and my son was telling me that now that there has been 8 police officers gunned down in Canada since October some of their wives are insisting they find a different job or face a divorce they are so worried about finding themselves being left as widows with children to look after, can you blame them?
The internet is full of stories about how it’s becoming almost impossible to recruit police officers in North America , it’s gotten that bad, yet these Reformers and American Republicans and their stupid supporters prefer to take the side of the criminals, as Barney has pointed out wasting money at the provincial level, and bash Trudeau, instead of supporting him when he is trying to stop assault rifles and handguns from getting into the hands of criminals is just plain stupid. .