No one believes that this mass arrest strategy is going to solve the drug problem in the United States. What is less understood is the extent to which it makes things worse. Every arrest destablizes the market by creating an opportunity for new people to come into the business. In poor inner city communities there is no shortage of people who are looking for this opportunity. Thus, there is constant turnover of personnel and continual competition for positions in the market.
Illegal markets tend to be unstable anyway, and to regularly generate violence.
This mass arrest strategy has exacerbated these tendencies. Understanding this dynamic does not lead necessarily to rejection of a maximum-arrest strategy. In fact, a number of policy analysts in the United States support this strategy as a way to reduce the number of drug users. Their support is based on the hope that it will improve conditions in their neighborhoods. They hope that if the police come and get the worst drug offenders out, they won't have to confront the drug scene, day in and day out.