And the younger people begin criminal careers, the greater the potential number of crimes they commit, and the degree of violence they use. Also, when a service or substance that people accept and use is illegal, it spurs organized crime. Certainly, that happened during the 1920's. Capone and his numerous imitators in New York, Detroit, and other cities gained much of their wealth throughout the opportunities created by prohibition. Today, people in positions of power, who go to great lengths to conceal their identities, are making large sums of money from drug trade.
More criminals committing greater numbers of crimes calls for a larger scale enforcement.
Larger scale enforcement means more police officers, more prisons, and an even greater load on an already overburdened legal system. And all of this costs more tax dollars from a country already deeply in debt. Of course, no one can argue that drug use doesn't have any harmful effects. However, some instances indicate that if drugs were legalized, after an initial increase drug use would decrease . During a reform movement in the middle 1970's, laws against possession of marijuana were relaxed.