Legalizing Drugs Would Reduce Drug-Related Crime (From Legalizing Drugs, P 49-51, 1996, Karin L. Swisher, ed. -- See NCJ-160030)

• NCJ Number: 160035
• Author(s): B Killion
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 3 pages
• Sale Source: Greenhaven Press
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Opposing Viewpoints Series

Annotation

Legalizing drugs may decrease drug-related crime and reduce the number of people sent to prison for drug offenses.

Abstract

Those who use illegal drugs are not deterred by threats of prison. If convicted and sentenced for drug trafficking or use, many individuals often return to the drug business when they are released. Drug addicts frequently murder out of desperation to get money for their habits, and the government response to drug- related violence is ineffective. Drugs do not cause crime; rather, the illegal status of drugs causes drug-related crime. Drug-related crime increases and decreases in direct proportion to the illicit drug price index, which in turn increases and decreases in direct proportion to the severity of punishment meted out to drug traffickers. Prison is not a deterrent to drug trafficking or drug abuse, no matter how lengthy the prison sentence. The only feasible way to solve drug-related crime is to end drug prohibition and thus remove the illicit profit margin.