Bending the Third Rail
Because We Should, We Can, We Do
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Makes Sense To Me
It's really too bad that policy, particularly drug policy, isn't based on some type of logic and research rather than superstition and discomfort.

Spencer Akerman has a great post discussing street drug dealers. He makes a very good argument that having drug dealers on your street corner makes it safer, not more dangerous, despite your personal discomfort:
On both blocks, however, not a hair on my head was touched. That's for a very simple reason, one The Wire explains time and again: violence on drug corners is extremely bad for business. No one can sell anything when two crews are beefing. You have to bring in extra muscle, which is expensive. And the extra police presence makes the whole thing a genuine nuisence. The last thing especially any crew wants is to piss off a civilian resident more than absolutely necessary, since those are the people who, pushed too far, will raise hell at neighborhood, precinct and even city council meetings -- which is, again, bad for business. Letting civilians walk on by without harassment, by contrast, is a sound business plan.
He further correctly points out that "no-mans land" is a far more dangerous place to be than the territory controlled by a drug lord.

Of course we could get rid of most of this altogether with legalization of drugs, turning it into the medical problem it is rather than a criminal one. But that would be too logical now, wouldn't it?
Written at 2:53 PM by Greyhair.
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