I've been thinking about drugs

 

I think that some people are going to use drugs no matter how bad it is for them or how much it costs.  If the person using drugs doesn’t have the money for their drugs, they will commit crimes to get the money.  The amount of crime a person is willing to commit is disproportionate to the benefit received; the criminal will cause $1,000 of damage to get $100 of benefit.  Unencumbered by knowledge as I am, that’s what I think.

 

I also think that if there is a demand for drugs, some people are going to fill that demand no matter the penalty or cost.  The market will provide.  The market is not driven by bad guys forcing us to use drugs, it is driven by the market responding to our demand.  The harder it is to fill that demand, the more the drugs will cost.  The more drugs cost, the more crime that will be done by the users to pay for their drugs (and the more violence by the sellers for the right to provide those drugs).

 

Our government has a huge role in the price of drugs.  It’s not the drugs themselves that cost a lot.  Drugs are essentially simple and cheap.  The harder we prosecute the drug supply chain though, and the more scarce we make drugs, the more expensive we make them.  The more drugs cost, the more crime and violence will be committed in their name.

 

So that brings me to wonder:

 

If we stopped our drug intervention would the price of drugs plummet?

 

If drug prices plummeted and they were legally available, would crime decrease?

 

If drug prices plummeted and they were legally available, would a major reason for drug cartels to exist have just gone away?

 

If we spent even a small fraction of that money we just quit spending on prosecution and incarceration, on education and treatment instead, would the number of drug users decline?

 

Just wondering….

 

And I think we’re not the ones paying the biggest price for our war on drugs.  Imagine the effect this has on our neighbors to the south.  We have to tolerate mostly property crime from the users that can’t afford the drugs they want, and pay for their capture and incarceration.  That’s nothing compared to the reign of terror in Mexico from the drug cartels, with kidnappings, ransoms, and murders run rampant.

 

Please, somebody help me.  I’m trying to sort through this logically and I keep coming up with illogical conclusions; like the more we spend on the war on drugs, the greater the cost to all involved.  Nothing could really be that simplistic or backwards, right?