For years, an alliance of liberals and libertarians have promoted the idea that legalizing drugs would reduce drug costs and drug crimes in this country. Let's look at some of the arguments for drug legalization. Legalization will take the profit out of the drug business. As surprising as it may sound, relatively few drug dealers actually earn huge sums of money. Most in the crack business are low-level runners who make very little money.
Many crack dealers smoke more crack than they sell.
Drug cartels are the ones making the big profits. Drug cartels would still control price and supply even if drugs were legalized in this country. If government set the price for legalized drugs, criminals could undercut the price and supply whatever the government did not supply. Addicts would not be significantly affected by legalization. They would still use theft and prostitution to support their habits.