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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 21, 1992                   TAG: 9202210481
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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MAKE DRUGS LEGAL, REDUCE VIOLENT CRIME

WE DON'T need more gun prohibition. We need less drug prohibition. Repeal of drug prohibition would result in fewer violent crimes.

The number of homicides with firearms rose during alcohol Prohibition. In 1918, before Prohibition, homicides and assaults with firearms were 11 per 100,000 persons. This rose to 16 per 100,000 in 1933, just before repeal of Prohibition.

After repeal, homicides and assaults fell for 10 consecutive years, to 9 per 100,000 in 1943. In Prohibition's last year, there were 12,124 homicides with firearms. By 1941, the number had declined to 8,048. (In 1980, it was 13,650; in 1990, it was 12,847.)

It is not necessarily the psychic effects of illegal drugs that cause violence, but the high costs and large profits engendered by their illegality. High costs force poor abusers to steal to support their habit. Large profits sway gangs to fight with rival gangs who might usurp their market.

Evidence that illegality, and not the drugs themselves, causes criminal behavior can be seen in Canada. Otherwise law-abiding citizens, in order to avoid the high taxes on tobacco, are smuggling American cigarettes into Canada and bootlegging them there.

Drug prohibition has only enriched thugs and created a culture of violence. It's time to acknowledge the failure of this absurd policy and relegalize drugs. JOHN KELL BLACKSBURG

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