As a result of banning drugs, organized crime grows more and more powerful. When alcohol was banned in the United States in the 1920s, the first three armed robberies of alcohol shipments took place within an hour of prohibition coming into effect. As the illegal trade boomed, so did the number of violent crimes. Robberies, burglaries and assaults increased significantly during Prohibition. About 880 “gangsters” died in turf wars in Chicago alone. The overall murder rate in America hit record highs. Then, in 1933, alcohol was legalized and violent crime dropped immediately (Gardner 2000). Organized crime is just one of many outcomes of drug prohibition. Because people cannot go through the legal system to deal with disputes around drug dealings, and there is no other structured process in place drug dealers and users must deal with justice in their own way. For example, biker gangs in Quebec are fighting a vicious war to gain control of the drug trade. They have killed 150 people since 1994. Chapters are opening in Ontario and other provinces and threaten to expand the conflict (Gardner 2000).

It is important to note that because of our prohibitionist drug laws, drugs are driven underground and cannot be monitored for content or potency. This means that illicit drugs cannot be regulated and therefore may be extremely dangerous and unpredictable. This would be like going into a store to purchase aspirins and not knowing how many to take because there are no instructions and no ingredients listed. One time it may be safe to take three aspirin, but next time you need to only take one. One of the benefits of more liberal drug laws would be that drug potency could be monitored and regulated. As a result, drug users would know how much to use, have instructions on how to use each drug properly and be instructed to not mix dangerous substances. This is a perfect example of how our prohibitionist drug laws create situations that are more dangerous than the drugs themselves. This issue was best illustrated during Prohibition when tens of thousands of people died or were blinded by tainted bootleg liquor. It is therefore accurate to state the majority of overdose related deaths today as well as high crime rates are the direct result of drug prohibition laws (Beauchesne 2000:2).

With regards to systemic violence, Goldstein states:

Systemic violence is normatively embedded in the social and economic networks for drug users and sellers. Drug use, the drug business, and the violence connected to both of these phenomena are all aspects of the same general lifestyle. Individuals caught in this lifestyle value the experience of substance use, recognize the risks involved, and struggle for survival on a daily basis. That struggle is clearly a major contributor to the total volume of crime and violence in American society (1985:154).

While it cannot be argued that organized crime would be eliminated completely should drugs laws be liberalized in Canada, it is possible to argue that the violence and crime associated with illicit drugs would decrease dramatically; as it did for alcohol in the 1930s. The market for illicit drugs would be greatly reduced as they would be made available to those who are heavily addicted (through prescription). Illicit drugs would not be as valuable to drug dealers and traffickers as they would be made easily available to those who desire them. As a result, RCMP and other police and government officials could re direct their resources into other areas such investigating and prosecuting violent crime.

The one area that Goldstein's framework does not address is the amount of people who would no longer be incarcerated or have criminal records should drug laws become more liberal and less prohibitionist. I would like to call this model "drug user decriminalization." Currently, statistics only record the number of people charged, convicted or incarcerated for drug crimes in the areas of possession, trafficking, and importation. The number of people charged for these offences within Canada and the United States is astronomical. Police report over 90,000 drug related incidents annually in Canada; more than three quarters of these incidents relate to cannabis and over 50% of all drugs related incidents involve possession (Senate Committee 2002). As of the late 1990s, more then 600,000 Canadians had criminal records because of cannabis possession (Boyd 1998).