BC’s new Gunshot and Stab Wound Disclosure Act is set to come into effect February 1, 2011. It essentially conscripts medical professionals into the ranks of police informants by forcing them to report any gunshot wound (or would suspected of resulting from a gunshot) and some knife wounds they may treat.
Solicitor General Rich Coleman justifies this expansion of snitch culture as part of a “seven-point plan to combat gang and gun violence” which really translates as BC is opening a new front in the ever growing — but futile — war on drugs.
Quite apart from the fact that it obliterates any notion of patient/doctor confidentiality, it will do nothing to curb drug/gang violence and will probably result in more deaths. Any half decent economist could explain to Rich Coleman the unseen or secondary consequences of that this imbecilic legislation …some gangsters with gunshot wounds will simply not seek medical treatment for fear of being reported. Others may turn instead to alternatives such as veterinarians or, in extreme cases, may even abduct doctors and force them to provide secret treatment outside the medical establishment.
Don’t these guys watch gangster movies?
If Rich Coleman and the other wonks in the BC government really want to stop gang violence they would simply take the obscene financial incentive out the gang controlled illicit drug market by legalizing all of it.
Common, when was the last time you read about the Eli Lilly gang having a shootout with the Pfizer gang?
