April 22, 1998

The Ottawa Citizen Editorial

letters@thecitizen.southam.ca

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/

SNUFF OUR CAPONES

It’s hard to take pride in this sort of fame. Not only is biker violence wretched, it is entirely of our own making. The shootings, the bombings, the whole underworld mess are a direct result of Canada’s continued criminalization of drugs.

Until the 1970s, as the Economist notes, biker gangs mainly spent their time swilling beer in clubhouses or engaging in small-time crime to pay for the beer. Now they’re organized, rich, and ever more violent.

What caused the change? The demand for illegal drugs mushroomed, so to speak. The most remarkable craving was for marijuana, which, before the late 1960s, had been almost unknown as a narcotic in Canada.

Normally, an industrial boom and the wealth and jobs it promises are cause for delight: If wine consumption were growing as quickly as marijuana use did in the 1970s, champagne corks would be popping from Bordeaux to Niagara. But the drug boom of the ‘70s wasn’t like other industrial expansions: The law excluded ordinary businessmen from the trade, leaving the lucrative new market to those who don’t care a fig about the law, among them many biker gangs, which grew like, well, weed. From five chapters worldwide, the Hells Angels now have 108 -- 40 in Canada alone. They are now a multi-million dollar, vertically integrated, multinational corporation. Forget Easy Rider. Think Godfather.

In a legal trade, corporations compete within the law, which generally forbids anything more aggressive than a stiff mark-down. But in an illegal trade, the law has no control over methods. When the Hells Angels began selling drugs in Montreal in 1993, the established trader, the Rock Machine, responded with guns and bombs—the first shots in a biker war that continues to this day.

If thugs simply blew up thugs, that would be one thing. But the peripheral damage from this struggle is appalling. Sometimes it is tragically obvious, as in the death of the Montreal boy who happened by when a biker bomb went off, or of the two Quebec prison guards killed to frighten others. But it’s more often unseen: corruption, threats, fear, and the loss of youth to a trade that pays handsome rewards for mayhem.

This isn’t the first time it’s happened. American Prohibition also spawned a violent, corrupt, and cruel criminal underworld that law enforcers, though they responded with ever-greater efforts, including abuses of civil liberties, failed utterly to suppress.

The end came only when alcohol was legalized. Organized crime gave way to legitimate businessmen, including former smugglers who donned the pinstripes and swore off their old habits. Some of Canada’s most respectable—and philanthropic—distillers and brewers got started that way.

There’s no reason in economics, law, or logic why the same can’t happen with other drugs—or, at least, there wasn’t until this week. In Chile, last weekend, Jean Chretien committed Canada to head up a new anti-drug body that will report to the Organization of American States. Member states will be required to file reports with this body on their efforts to stamp out drug consumption. A central committee will direct improvements.

Once Canada is locked into this mission impossible, any future attempt to legalize drugs will incur the wrath of the whole OAS. The prime minister may think he’s made a commitment in foreign policy, but he’s really ensured that our own drug trade will continue to enrich thugs. not to mention magazine editors looking for outrageous stories.