Resuming my constitutional, I fell to pondering about the claim in a recent number of the Guardian that one of the big drivers of knife crime was young drug dealers protecting their patches. When will we wise up to the costs of prohibiting something that large numbers of people want to do?
Large parts of both American continents are wracked by crime arising from the US appetite for recreational drugs, and it seems as if a lot of our cities are going the same way. The costs of enforcement must be far larger that the costs of managed consumption.
My only worry is that we would try and legalise recreational drugs on the cheap, without funnelling enough of the public money so saved into the deprived young people and the deprived areas which would be losing an important source of employment and income.
PS: perhaps we should ask YouGov to investigate whether there is any link between a strong belief in the criminalisation of drugs and owning or working for one of the private providers of enforcement services.
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