ENFORCING DRUG LAWS ONLY INTENSIFIES CRIME

The writer of the letter "Don't blame the guns for plague of violence on
our city's streets" (Jan. 28) is correct that 80 percent of crime in
Baltimore is drug-related. Yet the letter is dead wrong to assert that the
solution is a "drug-crime unit."

Enforcing the drug laws makes the problem worse. Every seizure of drugs
raises the price of the remaining drugs (that's the law of supply and
demand), which means that more robberies are committed to support drug habits.

Every arrest of a dealer means more turf battles among other dealers for
the arrested dealer's territory.

We saw the same thing with alcohol prohibition, yet we do it again with
drug prohibition. Why? Because most of the victims of the drug laws are black.

Henry Cohen

Baltimore