Prohibition creates crime

A Baltimore woman's home was firebombed yesterday by a group of teenagers. She's a prohibition activist and has been publicly speaking out against drug traffickers. The bombing comes hot on the heels of an underground DVD called "Stop Snitching" that's been circulating around Baltimore, "warning people they could 'get a hole in their head' for telling police about illegal drug activity."

The city of course is an uproar over this, remembering a family of five that was killed in 2002 for ratting out drug dealers in their neighborhood. The immediate call from the community is for stiffer penalties for such crimes but this is the wrong approach. As I've said many times, prohibition is what creates a market for the dealers. It's simple logic. If you legalized the drugs, you would put these criminals out of business and promote the public safety at the same time. The addicts wouldn't have to commit property crimes to afford their drugs and the dealers would have no customers. How much easier could it be?