PROHIBITION CAUSED CRIME WAVE

BILL MUEHLENBERG is wrong -- harm minimisation has not been tried;
drug law reform would not increase crime.

Muehlenberg's admiration for alcohol prohibition must be noted. We
spend unremarked billions a year, not $1.5 billion over four years,
to make heroin use even more dangerous. It's called zero tolerance.

A meter of practical deterrence ticks over at about three a day.
Nobody wants responsibility for syringe distribution to minimise
blood disease so it runs slipshod. Evasion pervades drug issues.

Possessing personal drug supplies is the main prohibition-related
offence. Legalisation should reduce that somewhat. To match illicit
profits, taxation would have to be massive.

Alcohol prohibition may have been a public health and safety success
but it caused a massive crime wave. It was, and remains, a sad day
for justice.