Drug policing… impressions
For conventional crime, police activity can actually reduce it. For drugs policing it never does. In fact Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) members and allies all over the world note that, more often than not, drugs policing actually increases crime.
Police do not reduce the size of a market, they just change the shape of it. Where gaps are created in the market, these are fought over, increasing violence… calling on police leaders to resist the political pressure to sell a drug policy that has failed… the public see images of seizures, doors smashed in and arrests… without any explanation of the actual impact. No explanation that it will make no difference to the availability, price, purity or variety of drugs on the streets. No explanation that violence will likely follow and that the ‘balloon effect’ means that some deals might now take place on a different street.
Drugs policing propaganda’s false impressions of success
Artwork Fair Use: Eldridge Misnomer
