Prohibition also leads to police corruption. Dealers bribe the police to ignore their activities and occasionally give them the names of other dealers, business rivals, so that the police have arrests to their credit and the dealers have reduced competition to contend with. When a dealer is arrested any cash handy and most of their drug supply can disappear. The dealer is not going to complain since a serious charge of possession with intent to supply has been reduced to one of simple possession and for their part the police now have cash and drugs for their own use or for paying informants. The only point at issue here is the extent to which such corruption occurs.
Drug dealers are the heroes of the curiously-named free market.
Prohibition is a perfect example of a do-gooding nanny state interfering in what is none of its business and trying to run peoples' lives for them. It seems that most of those who advocate the free market don't understand what it is. Obviously it is undesirable that people should use drugs to the extent that they damage their health and all possible means should be used to persuade people not to do this. There should be adequate rehabilitation facilities for those trying to kick dependency. But the government's failed attempt at prohibition must be rejected, as must the medical profession's attempt to play God by treating drug use as a medical problem.