The war on drugs what a bloody farce!

For years now Cobourg has had an underground of drug users, heck I can even remember in the 80s when it was suspected that a few Cobourg’s of prominent citizens were involved in a case involving cocaine, that collapsed when the best witness recanted his testimony. Since then we all know who sold the weed and how to get it. But the problem has escalated in Town because the Police in their wisdom have concluded that charging people for simple possession is against recent Judicial jurisprudence. So small amounts are tolerated and people are allowed to consume drugs.

Herein lies the problem how do the users get drugs? From the dealers who possess more than the allowable limit! The question is now what do the Police do about the local dealers?

Not much if we observe the local scene. Drug raids are few and far between reports. Drug seizures have occurred as a result of traffic stops but have these stops been because of a busted tail light or info about the contents of the car. Anyway the seizures are sporadic and bear no relation to the quantity of the drugs that are supposedly on the streets.

So the problem for me is why are the Police so lax in their efforts to clean up the Town. And it isn’t just the Town the whole bloody Country seems to have an enforcement problem. Where are the results of the humungous amounts of money spent by all the Police on the Drug problem? When are we going to see a “Mr Big” arrested and convicted? If the Cartels and Organised Crime are the big dealers of drugs when are we going to see arrests and convictions?

If people on Facebook can identify and name the ‘drug dealers’ in Town and even tie them to local residences why can’t the local, highly paid, Police Service, find the evidence needed to arrest and convict them? I even used to know one of them when he was a kid, didn’t seem too bright to me but must be a genius now to get away with all of the stuff the facebookers accuse him of.

The bottom line is simple, if the Mayor of Cobourg is so hot to trot about the problems caused by the drugs – addiction and homelessness and wants set fire to the County Council because he thinks they are failures at solving those issues, perhaps he should start ranting at home. Get down to the local Police Services Board and ask them very noisily what are they doing about the dealers in Town, what are they doing about the supply chain and what are they doing to liaise with the OPP in taking the Mr Bigs down!

If he wants to accept the modern status quo (addicts on the streets) then he should go the whole hog and support the decriminalisation of drugs and divert the money being spent on the issue, by the Police, into real solutions that we know work – safe supply and treatment/counselling, supportive housing and low rental housing. Whether he likes it or not the answer that works is adequate low-cost housing for those who are on the streets. That’s the conversation he should be having with Mr Ford’s buddies like the local MPP, instead of kissing their arses and boasting about building houses that his constituents cannot afford.

Just my thought of the day but it has occupied my mind for years, I would go one step further and ask why our self-proclaimed journalist of the day – Pete Fisher, with his supposedly tight links with the local Police Department doesn’t ask these easy questions, after all the topic of drugs and the dealers is the number one Facebook hit in the Town.