Gangsters thus have a vested interest in the return of prohibitionist governments. If only for the selfish reason of preserving our own civilized discourse and secure, free societies we should take seriously the enormous financial muscle the drug Prohibition gives to international organized crime. It is destroying Colombia, Italy and America and we would be foolish to assume we were immune. All this because we forbid a man to smoke opium rather than tobacco or forbid him to drink coca rather than wine. It is as arbitrary as Lilliput's war with Blefuscu over which end to open a boiled egg.
Any hardware store has more dangerous items for sale than drugs.
Prohibiting drugs may thus lead to the erroneous supposition that objects not prohibited are not dangerous. From this it is clear that it is what is done with knives or drugs that makes them dangerous, not the objects themselves, if properly used. Just as citizens learn the dangers of knives and how to control and use them for benefit, so the Prohibition denies them this opportunity in the case of drugs. This question is important for, as treaters of addiction, we seek to alleviate the problems of addicts but the Prohibition peddles them adulterated concentrates of unknown strength in the most insanitary and criminal circumstances. Even if we could afford the Prohibition, it is desperately counter-productive, creating all the problems it purports to solve.