"Bob Noel" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Gary Drescher" wrote:

For what it's worth, I think a much more plausible speculation (but only
a
speculation) about the social policies underlying the violence is that
it's
partly fallout from drug prohibition. The most combat-like violence in
N.O.
seems to be coming from the organized criminal gangs. And we know from
our
alcohol-prohibition era that such prohibitions readily promote runaway
organized crime that can ravage cities with violence even in the absence
of
widespread disasters.

I don't believe prohibitions cause or promote organized crime. The
prohibitions create demand for a product, but organized crime is not
dependent on the prohibition - organized crime will find *something*
even if it has to create it (e.g., "protection").

Prohibited alcohol and other drugs are an especially lucrative source of
illegal income. That they are not the *only* source does not imply that they
don't significantly fuel the rise of violent gangs.

--Gary