Drugs! Drugs! Drugs!

Talk about timing: Just as Jonathan and I were discussing the possibility of legalizing marijuana (drawing criticism from readers Dante and Robert), Mariel decided to up the ante in Sunday's Viewpoint. Mariel wouldn't just stop at pot, but advocates full-bore legalization of everything, from hash to heroin. And she makes a strong case that ending the War on Drugs is the only way to win the War on Gangs:

What (Mickey) Cohen knew is that the heart of gangsterism is capitalism. If there's a demand, there's money to be made. And if that money is to be made in the outlaw trade, then outlaws are going to make it. No amount of crackdowns or well-meaning political programs warning of the danger of gangster life is going to stop that essential equation. In fact, when Prohibition dried up, gangsters had to scramble to find new ways of making money.

Luckily for them, there were drugs.

Los Angeles' gangs of today are really no different from the crews of Cohen and Capone. And unless the supply simply dries up, which is unlikely, there's really only one way to stop these moneymaking machines, particularly those profiting from the poor, politically disenfranchised 'hood, where there aren't a lot of legit opportunities for making substantial cash: Take away the demand for the product.

Read the whole thing here. Then comment about it here.