Fix Fact

From Radley Balko, "Death by Drug War," at The Agitator:

Washington State has a law allowing prosecutors to impose a special homicide charge on people who supply drugs to overdose victims. The problem is that the law itself may be causing more overdose deaths.

The state of Washington’s position is clear: If someone calls 911 when
a friend is overdosing, not only does the witness risk charges for possessing or
selling drugs (which 911 callers in these situations have feared since the
passage of the Controlled Substances Act), but he or she could be charged with
homicide, too. The end result? Overdose victims—who might survive with prompt
medical care—may be abandoned and left to die.

When you think about how the law would be applied, it’s far more likely to
catch teens and college kids who share illicit drugs with friends making just
such a decision than it is to catch any major drug dealer. I doubt many people
overdose with their dealers . . .

*****

And it makes another case for legalizing the possession and sale of drugs. There's no upside for any drug dealer, let alone a legitimized one, to let customers fix under his roof. Dope and coke ain't alcohol; fiends and base heads, they ain't Otis Campbell, coming or going, so a dealer's going to get them in and out fast, and let 'em get back to wherever they'd be, being who they choose to be, laws or no. Just with a lot less drama on the street.

Waffles

What have you changed your mind about?

Legalization: "If drugs were legalized, there would be a drug spot in every corner. It wouldn't be a Starbucks. It'd be Weedbucks. McDonald's? McCokeald's. Krispy Kreme? Kracky Kreme."

--Chris Rock, "Never Scared"

Drug use should be entirely the user's business if he or she is of age and the rest of us are able to go on with our lives. But if drugs were legalized, where would the business of drugs be done, and who would do it?

My guess "then": on the same corners and by the same kids doing it today.

My take today: Drug dealers--the mid-and upper-level dealers, at least--would by choice begin to take their business off the corners, away from the kids, and into storefronts, leaving the smaller and less savvy dealers literally and figuratively out in the cold; or taking heat from the cops, who with increasingly less resistance would have more success directing drug traffic away from neighborhoods.

Success in many cities would come slowly. In any "war," there always will be dead-enders who only know what they know, "getting" who's "got to be got." Store-front stickups and truck jackings, along with good-ol'-fashioned payback, initially will keep more than a little violence in the game. Street trade would be clung to by some (especially during "after hours," assuming drugs only could be sold legally at certain times, as alcohol is today); and in certain areas of cities, it'd be expedient to tolerate street trade 'til the presumably wealthier storefront dealers (both those off the street and competitors new to the trade) put them out of business with stronger drugs in steadier supply, cleaner and safer surroundings in which anything you find in a 7-11 could be sold, and, eventually, the best prices.

Who, in addition to dealers exercising their Second Amendment rights, would make the storefronts safe for business? Cops, on-duty and off. A dollar's a dollar for everybody if it's legal.

What have you changed your mind about?