Last week, I was on the subject of youth/drug/gang crime, which gives every impression of being out of control in many places despite official, and arguably misleading, statistics showing that crime is dropping. I also bemoaned the right-left straitjacket into which the issue is locked and which prevents it from being properly ventilated at the political level.

Since we're into new beginnings in Nova Scotia with the NDP government, the time is right for a new shot at it. And here's something to think about: an eye-opening movement afoot in the U.S. that might well have some application here.

Last week, there was a story out of Sydney Mines in which a man, Ernie Young, 41, was beaten, stabbed and run over in his own yard (he survived) by four youths who had come to confront his 17-year-old son. By the time it was over, some 20 more youths had shown up, "throwing things, smashing bottles, swinging," according to a neighbour, who added that the "the kids are ... mega mega out of control." The issue is drugs.

One evening a couple of weeks before that, I was going home, heading for the causeway from Ste.-Anne-du-Ruisseau to Belleville, Yarmouth County, on Eel Lake Road, only to find it blocked and police lights flashing along its full length as far as my house on the other side, that was within the blockaded investigation scene.