Seized drugs boomerang back to the street

Another police-linked corruption scandal has erupted in Victoria, this time over shenanigans in the Forensic unit, reported The Age yesterday. It seems its civilian staff have been 'recycling' confiscated drugs and selling weapons that should have been destroyed.

This is one of the nasty side-effects of prohibition, which artificially inflates the price of drugs to the point where the temptation becomes too much for some scions of the law when a lucrative offer is made by crooks flush with cash from drug profits.

The black market industry, being unregulated, also attracts guns and shooters as criminals defend turf and punish wrongdoers.

The Age reports that "seized drugs were recycled by the former drug squad and either sold or given to informers as a reward for information."

It can be inferred that not only were drugs being 'recycled' but evidence was also being destroyed: "The 15-month Ombudsman's investigation began after an internal police audit found drugs worth millions of dollars were missing from the centre. The review found drugs listed as destroyed had been kept and exhibits that should have been stored were destroyed."

Two men have so-far been charged. In this case honest cops have blown the whistle on the crooks, which is heartening. But without prohibition, these honest cops would be better employed fighting actual crimes that hurt victims instead of spending their time digging out the endless dirt on their own side of the fence.