If lawmakers genuinely want to virtually eliminate illegal drug dealing and move the trade out of residential neighborhoods, they will have to replace prohibition with a legally regulated market. That would be the most effective way to ensure that consumers are adult and competent (via a drug license system, similar to a handgun or boater's license, or, more to the point, comparable to a prescription), that dealers are not making violent turf wars or contract disputes, and that the drugs themselves are regulated for purity, dosage and labeling.

Until then, prohibition will continue to bring counter-productive disastrous consequences: maximizing the danger of drugs through adulterations and unknown dosages, introducing violence into the market due to turf wars and contract disputes, and maximizing youth access by channeling the trade into the hands of criminals who never ask to see the consumers proof of drug education and age of majority (aka license).

The police may be doing their job but the lawmakers have sent them on a fool's errand, with disastrous results for public health and safety.