Word on the street is that there will be retaliation for the murder of Tommy “Burnside” Moore, the Como man whose burned body was found May 6 on Tom Floyd Road after the victim had been missing since April 24.

That has become the typical pattern in urban U.S., and there’s no reason to think it won’t happen here: Drug deal goes bad leaving somebody stiffed for their money or their drugs. Summary justice — usually a killing like the one in Como — is applied, since the legal channels for seeking redress are not available.

That is followed by retaliation, which sparks counter-retaliation, on ad nauseum. The cycle has gutted large swaths of American cities and regularly spills over in areas where, “That sort of thing just doesn’t happen here.”

But it does. It will continue and increase until somebody finally admits that the War on Drugs as it is now waged is a failure that only perpetuates the problem.

How?

Current enforcement efforts are successful only to the extent that they keep black market prices high. The black market thrives outside the law, but when there’s a ripoff, the victim can’t take anyone to court to recover damages. That’s when the victim takes justice into his own hands. The outcome is seldom pretty.

After decades — decades — of failed drug policy in this country, maybe instead of draconian enforcement efforts and harsh and mandatory prison sentences, all of which has cost us literally billions of dollars, it’s time to take a different approach.

And maybe, just maybe that approach should be removing the profit incentive. Take the least problematic drug(s) — marijuana, perhaps there are others — off the black market. Make them legal and tax them like beer and tobacco.

Give the Drug War leeway to pick and choose its battles and we might see results.

As it is fought now, this country’s Drug War has become Drug War, Inc. where billions are spent from local to international jurisdictions to provide personnel and equipment to enforce black market laws that make illegal drug production and distribution so profitable that we must constantly increase funding for Drug War, Inc. to meet the threat.

Huh?

I don’t doubt the sincerity of law enforcement officers whose remarks I have heard at various meetings. They all say that they are not winning, but they vow to keep on fighting it, hoping to make a dent.

What else can they do? Current drug policy puts them in an impossible situation.

One definition of insanity is repeating the same action and expecting different results. We’ve followed the same lock-’em-up, throw-away-the-key drug policy in this country since the days of Harry Anslinger in the 1930s. Results have always been the same.

Meanwhile, we sincerely hope that the rumors of more trouble brewing in Como will remain that — just rumors.