Most proponents of legalizing drugs emphasize the urgency of cutting the spiraling costs of criminal justice while taking the profits out of the drug trade. Others stress freeing up the disproportionate number of young black men currently incarcerated on drug-related charges. Largely ignored is the impact drug legalization would have on the street, where some activists worry it will simply favor the corporate pusher over the local dealer and cripple whole communities. PNS commentator Michael Datcher is a Los Angeles-based writer and reporter for the L.A. Sentinel.

LOS ANGELES -- What if drugs were suddenly legalized -- as recently proposed by the conservative National Journal and left-liberal critics of the criminal justice system? What if in one twist-of-a-dreadlock, crack cocaine was magically on sale in liquor stores across America?

Immediately, CEOs from American tobacco companies would be on the telephone saying, "Let's do lunch" to drug kingpins from Colombia to Turkey. In no time, major distribution deals would be drawn up placing crack rocks right on the shelf next to Camel Lights.

The prospects would be considerably bleaker for those independent drug dealers whose distribution network consists of neighborhood underlings hawking product up and down the street.

Many young black men now incarcerated on drug-related charges would doubtless go free. And those who returned to the streets would survive for several more months by servicing their regular customers. But once Madison Avenue account executives kicked their ad campaigns into high gear, the small time dealer's days would be numbered.

Tobacco and alcohol companies are quite adept at marketing their wares to the black community. Drive through any of our nation's urban centers, look up, and you'll see three out of five billboards telling black America how Kool it is to smoke cigarettes and drink liquor. Black people take note. Many of us are enraptured by "name brand products," especially when they are legitimized by the mainstream media. The day that a national, brand-name, crack manufacturer starts advertising on television with a witty slogan, over a hip hop back beat (KRACK(tm) is it!), the crack that the brother on the corner sells will instantly cease being good enough for the black crack consumer. He'll want the brand-name KRACK that he sees on television. The crack that's cool because a cool TV pitchman says it's cool. In the mind of the black crack addict, KRACK really will be IT(!)

Abandoned by his bread-and-butter neighborhood clients, the small time crack dealer would be forced out of the highly competitive drug business. Accustomed to a comfortable financial lifestyle, and with skills that afford few alternatives, the dealer would most likely return to a life of crime. "I'd steal more" is how most hustlers I know respond when asked what they'd do if drugs were legal.

Legalizing drugs would also have a deleterious impact on drug users, particularly African Americans. There are products sold in black communities that you will be hard pressed to find in non-black neighborhoods. Malt liquor and cheap, high alcohol-content, wines fill the shelves of local black markets, including the stores in my neighborhood. These legal, but very addictive, products are conspicuously absent from most white areas. If crack were legalized, it would be found in the vast majority of the liquor stores that dominate the African American community landscape. The highly addictive product would be marketed to black folk and made readily accessible. Since we often look for ways to escape the harsh realities that living a black life in America can produce, we would buy KRACK from the Korean liquor store owner just as we bought it from the brother on the corner. Given the number of liquor stores in black neighborhoods, legalizing crack cocaine would help lead thousands of African Americans down the road of drug dependency -- crippling whole communities.

Of course, community activists would complain about the proliferation of KRACK in African American areas. The KRACK industry would, undoubtedly, respond by producing an in-house scientific study, by in-house scientists, that proves KRACK is not addictive -- just like the tobacco industry did. These studies would be criticized and wrists slapped. However, the KRACK industry would stand tough because they'd have a Washington lobby group almost as strong as their tobacco industry cousins. The KRACK industry would be virtually untouchable because as the tobacco industry has shown, money talks louder than the screams of cancer victims or drug addicts.

The best argument in favor of legalizing drugs is that it would liberate the high numbers of young black and Latino men serving time on drug charges. But improving the first grade would be a better place to start. Making teacher salaries commensurate with the responsibilities of their profession -- educating the world. It's absurd that in our society becoming an elementary school teacher requires quasi-missionary sacrifice. If American educators were equipped with reasonable financial and material resources, and proper societal respect, 40 percent of young black men would not be entangled in the legal system. Period.

Education brings knowledge, knowledge breeds wisdom, wisdom engenders love and respect for self and others. Young black men who love and respect themselves will not consistently make life choices resulting in being caged like animals, let alone surviving by turning their neighbors into drug addicts.