"how often have you read of a murder or robbery for a pack of cigarettes or a sixpack of beer? Yes, it does happen but VERY infrequently"
Ahh, but how many times have we heard of vicious crimes being committed BY someone high on drugs?
Homicide Rates and Substance Control Policy
One possible theory for the correlation between the homicide rate and the substance control proxy is that homicides are caused by drug and alcohol use, and therefore homicides increase as drug and alcohol arrests increase. This theory does not explain the data. I have shown in table 1 that the fit between the homicide rate and the drug use rate is very poor, but this result is of somewhat limited value since drug use data is only available from 1975 to 1997 and none of the other proxies are significant during this time period. The best argument against the theory that substance abuse causes crime is the end of prohibition. The end of prohibition by the repeal of the 18th amendment in 1933 was a political choice unrelated to a change in alcohol use. This political choice was soon followed by a large decrease in the homicide rate. This indicates that the theory which is most consistent with the data is that changes in the homicide rate are responses to changes in substance control policy. I therefore conclude that the best theory of the primary cause of violent crime in the United States is a violent black market caused by the War on Drugs today, and Prohibition in the 1920’s.