[lbo-talk] it's inevitable

[Jim Devine]

jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net  wrote:
> On 28 Apr 2006 at 15:50, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
> > BTW, anyone who believes that drugs are a "victimless crime" should live in
> > Baltimore for a while, the murder capital of the US (or close to it).  We
> > have on average one murder per day, almost of all of it is drug related (bad
> > deals, debt enforcement, turf encroachments, etc.)

John Thornton:
> Those deaths you mention are no more drug related than they are poverty related or prohibition related. I'm pretty sure you are not a big fan of terrible poverty but I'm not sure about prohibition.<

if pot were free, there would be no drug crimes due to pot. (An old
friend from Chile reported that back in the 1960s it was free, because
it grew all over the place. Strangely, it was only the upper class
kids like him that smoked it.)  Some people might be stoned all the
time, hurting their incomes, etc., but there would be no smuggling,
turf wars, burglaries to feed one's habit, etc. I think the same is
true of cocaine (and other "hard" drugs), but coke encourages
delusions of grandeur, which likely encourages some crime.

In general, US anti-drug policy raises drug prices, which encourages
smuggling, turf wars, etc.

--
Jim Devine / "There can be no real individual freedom in the presence
of economic insecurity." -- Chester Bowles