POT AND CRIME

Re "A bummer for Rand," Editorial, Oct. 26

Contrary to your editorial, there is nothing "counterintuitive" about
the Rand Corp. study's finding that crime increases near recently
closed marijuana dispensaries. What else would one expect when the
city closes hundreds of taxpaying businesses, rendering their
employees jobless, leaving behind vacant storefronts and relegating
their patrons to the black market?

What is truly counterintuitive is the pretense of our public officials
that the criminal prohibition of marijuana, unlike that of alcohol,
might somehow reduce crime.

Dale Gieringer

San Francisco