However, Loken's challenge to the claim that drug prohibition causes crime is surprising. Critics of drug prohibition have gone largely unchallenged in their contentions that drug prohibition is criminogenic. The drug war has created new motivations for crime and thus has swelled the proportion of predators in the population, enlarging the propensity of people in the Untied States to prey on each other. At the same time, our preoccupation with drug prohibition has greatly diluted law enforcement resources available to curb predatory crime. Thus, citizens have both been required to pay for enormous increases in law enforcement and self protection and have experienced severe damage to the quality of their lives. The pervasive threat of crime has also wrecked our cities, fomented racism, destroyed our liberties, and shriveled our souls with fear of strangers. Despite Loken's impressive arguments, this condition is largely the result of our insane drug war. Footnotes