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I think that ending the drug trade would actually increase violence against the average citizen. Drugs provide a lucrative means of employment for a large numb
by codex 14y ago
I think that ending the drug trade would actually increase violence against the average citizen.
Drugs provide a lucrative means of employment for a large number of people with few skills. Take that away, and the world looks much bleaker. These newly unemployed, who used to make hundreds of times what they would working at McDonalds, can now no longer afford their own shoes. They might then turn from dealing drugs and occasionally shooting each other, to armed robbery and occasionally shooting a law abiding citizen.
- rdl 14y agoThe drug trade is uniquely violent. It has no recourse to legal contracts, high values of cash or cash equivalents, and people who are by virtue of being on drugs, predisposed to violence and irrationality. The average citizen is honestly not that much affected by gun crime, drug crime, etc. now. It's mainly confined to urban ghettos and some border regions, and the perpetrators are generally black and latino young males, and the victims are black and latinos of a variety of ages (primarily young males, too, but not as exclusively). It's pretty hard to separate racism and a history of racism and discrimination, the drug war, and culture of violence (including gun violence).