The push to legalize drugs has returned to the news with the Arizona illegal immigrant problem. Talk show pundit Jason Lewis believes that legalizing drugs will decrease border violence. I reject that conclusion. WeâÄôve all heard the trope that âÄúguns kill people like spoons make Rosie OâÄôDonnell fat.âÄù Lewis likes to occasionally quote it. The corollary I see is that a lucrative illegal drug trade does not make drug dealers violent. Illegal drugs are an economic vehicle for unscrupulous profit. These people were violent, murderous psychopaths independent of (and before) entering the drug trade. They seek profit and will kill to get it. Instead of 1,500 murders, 60 cops killed and 700 kidnappings every year, weâÄôll have the same amount of violence after legalizing drugs; it will just be redirected to a new, lucrative enterprise, like kidnapping. The mass abduction of at least 50 persons from a hotel was the first sign of a new âÄúbusinessâÄù from the Mexican crime families. The best solution is incarcerating the violent, murderous psychopathic felons who are willing to kill or kidnap to make a profit. This is the only solution that will have a real impact on violence. No country, state or nation has ever, in recorded history, emptied its prisons to reduce crime and then survived. We cannot release violent convicts simply because of prison overcrowding; it has never worked anywhere at any time. The percentage of our population is an irrelevant anecdote and a dangerous non sequitur. It doesnâÄôt matter if 1 percent or 80 percent of our population are violent criminals; our choice is to lock them up (no matter how costly the prospect) or dissolve our country in favor of anarchy. Releasing them has no empirically demonstrable rehabilitative effect and never has. Todd Meitzel Facilities Management