[scott_w]

"While heroin is illegal people prostitute or burgle to get money"

The legality of an addictive substance doesn't make much difference to whether someone will commit a crime to get their fix.

Consider: people commit crimes to get money to buy alcohol. People also steal other legal goods they want e.g. TVs, laptops.

[neumann_alfred]

Consider: people commit crimes to get money to buy alcohol.

How can you consider that, without also considering that most people don't? Price does make a difference.

[scott_w]

I don't really see how that's relevant.

I was responding to the point "people commit crimes to fund their drug habit because drugs are illegal".

One way of verifying this (without de-criminalisation) is to compare drug usage to alcohol usage, and the crime rates of people funding either habit.

It's a hard study to do because there are other factors in play e.g. a pimp keeping his prostitutes dependent on drugs is a different situation to people prostituting to buy drugs.

[neumann_alfred]

One way of verifying this (without de-criminalisation) is to compare drug usage to alcohol usage

That's why the fact that most alcoholics don't commit crimes to get their fix is relevant. Sure, some do, sometimes, but on the whole, it's a vastly different picture; and the price, and not being pushed into shady alleys with shady people has to do with it.

Just consider the Prohibition, and also the experiences of all the countries who partially or completely decrimalized hard drugs, which is generally a success story.