[throwaway0a5e]

What happens to the US homicide (or any violent crime) rate when you take the illegal drugs supply chain out of the equation?

I already know the answer. It makes the place look a hell of a lot like Western Europe.

The people not making their living outside the law don't need more police and they sure as shit don't need more militarized police. The largest group of people who are making their living outside of the law can easily be made to not be doing that by an act of congress.

[alehul]

General crime rate will decrease as you legalize recreational drug use, but there's no reason to believe that will resolve the many issues that lead to homicide in the United States.

It will reduce the profitability of the drug trade, which may result in less crimes or an increase in other crimes. It may also increase the number of people addicted to drugs, which, in the United States, leads to an exponential increase in both violent crime and property crime [1].

There's many other forms of crime and homicide than drug-related, and plenty of people need the police for reasons that are not related to drugs.

Separately, those people would not be making their living "not outside the law," they would be out of work. Drug legalization doesn't mean we allow existing supply chains from violent cartels.

[1] https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/DRRC.PDF