[Gigantor]

I bet if you were around during Prohibition, you'd try to convince us that all this would go away if only we would legalize alcohol. Well, we did, and
it didn't go away, now did it?

Huh? The Alcohol Black Market was neutralized, and indeed went away. With it went control of that Black Market by organised crime, the lucrative profits from bootleg booze, and the turf wars over alcohol.

What we have today is an unprecedented profit motive in the illegal-drug Black Market. Organized crime thrives on Black Markets - do you not recognize that empirical fact?

Still want to promise us utopia if only we would legalize all drugs?

I am not neccessarily for that extreme measure. Apparently your utopia includes having some drugs illegal-yet-readily-available 24/7 in every city and town across the USA - including to minors.

[muawiyah]

Having grown up next door to a Mafia soldier, I can assure you that the black market for alcohol never disappeared. It's alive and thriving.

[robertpaulsen]

Hey, if organized crime is not going to go away, if the situation will continue where "Gangs arm themselves to the teeth and kill each other over turf - this spills over to entire sections of cities where society has broken down. Bodies found on a daily basis, children shot through windows at thier birthday party, and the law abiding residents prisoners and helpless in a war zone where the police are practically powerless", then don't promise it.

You'd have us believe this would happen -- just legalize drugs and organized crime will go away. Why else do you bring it up?