LEGALIZING DRUGS WOULD STOP VIOLENCE

Re: John Tory, Mayor At Last, Aug. 12.

When will Torontonians, their politicians and their police finally admit to
themselves that their gun violence problem can only be solved by less
government, not more?

No amount of new police manpower, no amount of welfare spending to address
"root causes," no amount of job-creation programs for youth and no amount
of harsher penalties for drug and gun offences will stop the gun violence
that plagues Toronto.

This is because Toronto's gun violence problem can be wholly traced to the
federal government's prohibition of drugs. In any market where the good
traded is not protected under the law as legal property, violence will be a
competitive advantage among those seeking to sell it. When merchants cannot
call police when someone threatens their body or their property, their
competitors can successfully use acts of violence and theft in their
business strategy.

In effect, drug prohibition has turned Toronto into a mild version of
Hobbes's state of nature.

In the early 1930s, Canada suffered from similar violence in the illegal
alcohol trade. A policy of handgun registration was implemented to stem the
violence. It did nothing. The violence ended only when Prohibition did.

It's time Toronto learned from the lessons of economics and history.

Michael Cust, Vancouver.