Rape and murder? I believe those crimes are much more likely to be connected to alcohol use- that said, I'm not really much in favor of the prohibition of alcohol either. Why? Because it just doesn't work, and its banning caused more problems than its use does. Same with drugs.
If people will rob for them, they'll need to rob a lot LESS won't they? Maybe they'll do what the bums do- and beg for their money. At any rate, less cost certainly supports less stealing- don't you think?
"The role of alcohol in crime victimization
About 1 million violent crimes occurred in 2002 in which victims perceived the offender to have been drinking at the time of the offense. Among those victims who provided information about the offender's use of alcohol, about 30% of the victimizations involved an offender who had been drinking.
Two-thirds of victims who suffered violence by an intimate (a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend) reported that alcohol had been a factor. Among spouse victims, 3 out of 4 incidents were reported to have involved an offender who had been drinking. By contrast, an estimated 31% of stranger victimizations where the victim could determine the absence or presence of alcohol were perceived to be alcohol-related.
For about 1 in 5 violent victimizations involving perceived alcohol use by the offender, victims also reported they believed the offender to have been using drugs as well. "
ojp.usdoj.gov
So if it's 30% of victimizations that include alcohol, then only 1/5th of that 30%, or 6%, include "perceived" drug use. And I would suggest to you that perceived drug use on the part of an aggressor is probably a lot harder to determine than alchol use, since you can smell alcohol so strongly on people who have been drinking.
I say decriminalize, and treat the people who want help. Right now it's hard to get a treatment program- it can be a long wait.
And let's be honest- most people who use "drugs" use pot- and that's a silly drug to be illegal since it's no more, and quite possibly less, dangerous to society than alcohol is. I think the government ought to be taxing pot- there's quite a large revenue streal there, and the sooner we wake up to that, the better. You can pay with treatment programs using the taxes from pot. |
