Economic look on the "War on drugs"?

Question

O.K., so we learn in college economics, that the illegalization of drugs(such as marijuana), only effect the supply side of the supply-demand curve. Supply is shifted to the left, which means that suppliers offer fewer items to sell than if the governement did not resrict the sale of drugs. Demand however, is not affected at all, and so it inevitable that there will always be a demand for certain drugs. Therefore, the "war on drugs" will never end. Demand will have to be completely destroyed in order for that to happen, and as long as people have indepepndent thinking, that will never happen.

Comments?

Um, yeah, first we give up on the war on drugs. We should adopt the dutch policy. Soft drugs should be tolerated, which would benefit everyone who ever tried marijuana, which is about half the U.S. population.

Answer 1

When marijuana is legalized ( I say when, not 'if'), there will be some "commercialization", but anyone with a "green thumb" is going to start growing there own , "home grown".

Someone predicted that when marijuana is legalized, there will be about three years of economic growth in the commercial cannabis business, and then the home-grown will undercut the prices , so commercial growers won't make a profit.

The prohibition against marijuana cultivation actually helps marijuana growers in another way: marijuana is polinated by the pollen in the wind. Growers spend a lot of effort removing/culling male plants which produce pollen and no "buds". The result is seedless buds .
One male plant, however, can pollinate the female plants, and cause the buds to have seeds. the plant puts it's energy into making seeds, instead of the psychotropic agent THC (Tetra Hydro Cannibinol). The seeded cannabis is less potent than the seedless.

The prohibition against alcohol failed in thew 1930's. It was only funnelling money into organized crime, as the pot prohibition does today.

Furthermore, back in the 1980's I told everyone " If you don't help campaign to legalize pot, 20 years from now , they are going to take away your cigarettes."
That prediction is starting to come true.

Answer 2

Yes I would agree with you when you make drugs illegal there is no way to control it. Whether you like or not people will always find new and creative ways to grow or import or make whatever drug. That also means that if people want it (demand) and there will always be people who want it then there are those that who will make it (supply).

The article that one of you posted is about tobacco which is not an illegal substance nor is alcohol but combined they cause more deaths a year than from illicit drugs. The next question should be why are they not illegal? They are also so readily available and accessible that it is scary. Also, if you want to talk about your local drug dealer check the pharmaceutical companies and your local pharmacy.

The reason I include the pharmaceutical companies is that they are making billions of dollars off of drugs that they develop. How is that any different than illegal drugs? For those of you who say yeah but they are FDA approved. Yes but do any of you know what the FDA criteria is? The criteria is that the company has to prove to the FDA is that it is better than the placebo. That really is not all that difficult. Not only that but there are many legal drugs (especially psychotropic ones) such as Ritalin that are on the DEA schedule of controlled substances! Ritalin (also a derivative of cocaine in case you did not know) is a schedule II drug which means that on the same list as cocaine, opium and morphine and is highly addictive, not the most addictive but one step away. Check the DEA website or google for the lists drugs on schedule 1 and 2. Trust me you will be surprised. Yet we see many many children who are put on this drug for ADD/ADHD. Difference between those drugs and illegal ones just a perscription.

Answer 3

One correction. Research shows that drug supply creates its own demand in case of underage users. See, for example:

Scott P. Novak, Sean F. Reardon, Stephen W. Raudenbush, and Stephen L. Buka, "Retail Tobacco Outlet Density and Youth Cigarette Smoking: A Propensity-Modeling Approach," American Journal of Public Health, April 2006, Vol 96, No. 4, 670-676.

http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/96/4/670

In other words, children and teenagers will try drugs simply because they are close by. Now recall that the war on drugs pushes the dealers out of wealthier neighborhoods into poorer ones. The result of that is that drugs are disproportionately pushed on poor people...

Answer 4

a minimum of Sadam is ineffective. And no one f**ked with us on our soil considering that 9/11. Plus Israel remains here, and not wiped out with Iranian nukes, so as that's sturdy. The stimulus did not do what it grow to be meant to, ala unemployment projected to stay at or above 9% into 2011. Keynesian economics are voodoo. Which gave us extra bang for the greenback?

Answer 5

So I assume you have a solution.