What is worse, violence or drugs?
Tuesday 24 March 2009 - Filed under drugs
From some smart Harvard guy:
Prohibition creates violence because it drives the drug market underground. This means buyers and sellers cannot resolve their disputes with lawsuits, arbitration or advertising, so they resort to violence instead.
Violence was common in the alcohol industry when it was banned during Prohibition, but not before or after.
Violence is the norm in illicit gambling markets but not in legal ones. Violence is routine when prostitution is banned but not when it’s permitted. Violence results from policies that create black markets, not from the characteristics of the good or activity in question.
The only way to reduce violence, therefore, is to legalize drugs. Fortuitously, legalization is the right policy for a slew of other reasons.
2009-03-24 » lolife
27 March 2009 @ 7:37 am
It would be nice if some of our “Leaders” had the stones to to acknowledge what everyone knows…and then to make a change.
14 million Americans use MJ on a regular basis (this is the just the number that admit it)
Prohibition is expensive and doesn’t work