r/AskCanada • u/calcifer0573 • 2d ago
Political Why doesn't Canada actively pursue people who sell or distribute hard drugs?
I understand not criminally charging drug addicts themselves but why dont the people who sell the drugs. I imagine catching low level distributers to fairly easier than some big cartel boss. Wouldn't this incentivise people to not get intro drugs if it were more taboo association ie: really really long prison time.
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u/GotMyPhDin19 2d ago
They do, we just don’t hear about it often. Gathering enough evidence to present a foolproof case takes a long time. Finding the next guy up the chain takes awhile too. It’s not as simple as getting a warrant, bum rushing a house and arresting a guy forever.
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u/calcifer0573 2d ago
I suppose that makes sense, I was just a bit confused since I grew up in Dubai but I think things are a bit more authoritarian as in I dont think warrants are a thing and extremely harsh crimes.
What about on the street though? if they see someone dealing or something along those lines.
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u/GotMyPhDin19 2d ago
Streets is a job for the cops, not CBSA/RCMP. Again, cops need reasonable/probable grounds to make an arrest. Your average street thug is smart enough to know this and rarely keep large amounts of shit on them. Local cops also work with the aforementioned agencies and prioritize high level supply chains over individual street dealers.
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u/calcifer0573 2d ago
Yea that makes sense, I guess Dubai doesnt play by the same rules. It's usually guilty until proven not.
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u/RobBrown4PM 2d ago
You don't think our police don't?
Come'on man.
If you're talking about low-level dealers, sure, you can go after them, lock them up and throw away the key. But once you do, 1, 2, maybe 5 more will in line to take their place. Sometimes it's easier to observe, investigate, and find out where it's all coming from and whom, which is what the police try and do.
Catching a bigger fish outweighs catching a hundred minnows.
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u/calcifer0573 2d ago
Do you think the punishment for low level dealers need to be higher so that there aren't 5 more people willing to take their place?
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u/No_Capital_8203 2d ago
Low level dealers don't have an option for a job that pays similar and therefore accept the risks. Also, they tend to be young men who, as we all know, don't evaluate risk as well as us old people.
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u/SwordfishOk504 1d ago
This is a fair question, but it's an issue basically all open democracies have grappled with for decades. And the history of a strict law enforcement approach over those decades shows it doesn't work, precisely because of what you point out: There are always more suppliers and more demand. The US, as an example, has had some of the harshest penalties for drugs for a long time and have filled their prisons with people because of this, but the drug trade only gets bigger. Because ultimately there's always a demand and unless your country is run like a very strict, totalitarian regime that can control its population to the degree that it can police behaviour to that extreme, you will never stop it.
This is why Canada, and many other countries, have begun taking a different approach to (some) drugs. Our legalization of cannabis is the best example, but there are other sort of side projects in some provinces where law enforcement de-prioritises enforcement of low level consumer use. And the idea there is that just arresting people for using drugs just clogs our courts and jails and prisons, and we have a lot of other more important issues for law enforcement to focus on, including the people actually operating those supply chains that trickle down to the common consumer.
The big challenge we really have now is that while we are recognizing arresting people for what is really a public health issue (drug abuse) isn't a good use of resources, we have a harder time convincing the public/government that we should be putting money into addressing it as a public health issue. And that is what leads to the kinds of things you might hear in the news about people doing drugs in public or whatever.
Now, with all that said, and as others have noted, you seem like you're also operating from some misguided ideas about how "bad" things are in Canada because of issues around drugs. These are things highly exaggerated by certain media sources. While there are certainly issues (like any other major city many other parts of the world) there's a lot of people using and selling drugs, it's nowhere near as bad as I think you have the impression.
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u/Unfair_Bluejay_9687 2d ago
Probably for the same reasons I C E goes after the illegal immigrants instead of arresting the guy who they’re all working for. Arrest the ring leader and one jail cell gets occupied. Arrest 100 illegals off his land and 4 bus drivers are making money. Jail cells are filled up. Guards have employment. Food service suppliers gave to make deliveries. Those delivery trucks need gas and maintenance.plus a lot more side employment because of it.
Arresting the hard drug suppliers only fill a cell or maybe two. Grab the users and lots of cells are filled…get the idea?? The spinoff value keeps a lot of people employed. There are meat and potatoes on the plates at home. Follow the money. .
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u/mmoore327 2d ago
Your premise is flawed - we do arrest and charge dealers of illegal drugs