On Tue, 23 Aug 2005, Tyler Durden wrote:
Yes, but the old question needs to be asked: How much of this crime would go away if crystal meth were legal? There's little doubt that the vast majority of drug-related crime stems not from some crazed crime spree but from issues relating to supply and demand. Legalizing drug XYZ no doubt drops the cost.
Lets not forget the lessons of the NYC Methadone "Maintenance" Programs either. While heroin results in crime due to high cost (by virtue of illegalization), the legal version also creates crime due to it's high cost. The MMPs have the same "Money or else" position that the junkie faces on the street, and while the prices are certainly lower, they are NOT "low". In 1983 a junkie expected to pay $40-$80 per *day* for maintenance (I'm sure it's a lot higher today). Along with legalization must come the removal of monopoly practices such a single sourcing of the drug and prescriptions to dispense. Only then does the free market take over and keep the price, and the crime, low.
Then again, if we legalized a lot of drugs then what would all those corrections officers do for a living? Become airport security experts no doubt.
Move Stars. Presidents. McBodies...
-TD
-- Yours, J.A. Terranson sysadmin@mfn.org 0xBD4A95BF I like the idea of belief in drug-prohibition as a religion in that it is a strongly held belief based on grossly insufficient evidence and bolstered by faith born of intuitions flowing from the very beliefs they are intended to support. don zweig, M.D.