Jacob Sullum in Forbes: Why the War on Drugs Is Doomed by Economics

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A study published this week shows that during the last two decades illegal drug prices have fallen while seizures have risen. Writing in Forbes, Senior Editor Jacob Sullum explains why that outcome is not surprising given the economics of the black market.

Read the article.

Comments

[sarcasmic]

You need admin privileges to read the article?

[Rich]

*** sadly ***

The terrorists have won.

[UnCivilServant]

*sniffles* I only had admin rights to New York State Employee information, not reason articles.

[Eduard van Haalen]

It's proprietary information.

[Floridian]

Now how am I suppose to scream "RTFA" at people if they can't RTFA?

[pan fried wylie]

You read the articles?

[Floridian]

Only the ones with pictures of boats. I like boats.

*waits for navy vet to scream SHIPS*

[UnCivilServant]

Whenever someone does that I just move to derogitory names for those dinghies. If your ego is so brittle it can't take a quirk of nomanclature, you don't deserve consiteration.

[Floridian]

I was trying to head off another clips vs magazines type shouting match. Those are so tedious.

[sarcasmic]

The Wasteful War On Drugs Is Doomed By Economics 101

[tarran]

OK. Let's write the article ourselves:

1) Prohibition doesn't eliminate demand, it just drives it underground

2) Very few suppliers are willing to take the risk of supplying that demand, so the quantity produced is quite low.

3) The market clearing price becomes quite high.

4) This ensures that the succesful black market suppliers are making vast profits

5) This attracts more would-be suppliers who also want a piece of the action

6) OVer time the quality and quantity these black market guys can supply goes up.

[Jordan]

That's voodoo to Joe Sixpack, unfortunately.

[UnCivilServant]

The link works now, and has a separate comment section... I'm now confused.

[UnCivilServant]

Now the link points to a third location... I give up.

[sarcasmic]

FTA

As critics of prohibition often point out, the government cannot keep drugs out of correctional facilities, so even turning the entire country into a prison camp would not do the trick.

Don't give them any ideas.

[Bardas Phocas]

Isn't a it worth a try ... for the children?

[AlmightyJB]

On jury duty next week. Voir Dire outta be interestingly if I make it that far.

[AlmightyJB]

What do you think about drugs? I wish I was high right now:)

[BakedPenguin]

On-topic off-topic: The House I Live In is a good drug war documentary available on Netflix. It won't tell anyone here anything they don't already know, but sometimes it's good to remind ourselves of the basics.

[AlmightyJB]

Totally. I don't think my stance on legalizing drugs will get me in though.