Pubdate: Sat, 02 Feb 2002 Source: Baltimore Sun (MD) Copyright: 2002 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper. Contact: http://www.sunspot.net/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37 Author: Henry Cohen 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 - --- MAP posted-by: Beth