JOURNAL OF DRUG ISSUES 31(4), 989-1006 THE IMPACT OF DRUG ENFORCEMENT ON CRIME: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE OPPORTUNITY COST OF POLICE RESOURCES. —

Ttie conventional wisdom among the law enforcement community is that drug use causes crime and that stringent enforcement of drug laws is an effective tool to combat property and violent crime. Previous research by some of these authors found that a sharp increase in drug enforcement in Florida durir)g 1984-1989 resulted in a reallocation of police resources which reduced the effectiveness of property crime enforcement and increased the property crime rate. Some have suspected that this result is the product ofthe very large increase in drug enforcement during this time period and that under "normal " circumstances greater drug enforcement would not result in higher property crime. This paper rebuts that suspicion