the best single case made for ending the war on drugs from the greatest TV show of them all. A bit over 3 minutes long.

Years ago, I remember reading a short news note about a Rand study of occupational hazards facing drug gangs in Washington, DC in the 1970s.

In a typical career of a few years, the annual risks were these:

The chances of being caught by the police was 22% – usually 18 months in prison; the chances of serious injury 7%; The chances of being murdered by a business associate or market rival was 1.4%; the pay for street dealers is rather poor and not much better than their next best job opening.

Gave up on the war on drugs right there and then. Death and injury are the main occupational hazards of a drug dealer.

Murder was the leading cause of death of young black Americans.

Another paper pointed out that one reason the death penalty did no work so well was because people spent so long on death row due to appeals that taking them out of the drug trade increased their life expectancy.

The execution rate on death row is about twice the death rate from accidents and violence for all American men, and only slightly greater than the rate of accidental and violent death for all black males aged 15 to 34.

Bad prison conditions—well known, pervasive and immediate—have a more significant deterrent role against crime. Death row is a rather safe place to be?