To me it is a simple economics problem: increase the costs of supplying the commodity, there will be less in circulation (this includes bribery, lawyers fees, arsennals, etc.) Decrease the costs of supplying the commodity, and the circulation will increase, up to some ceiling of potential consumers. Legalization, even with heavy taxation,immediately and drastically reduces the costs of supply. Therefore, it increases the circulation of drugs, and creates new users, and, in fact, new abusers. Therefore, all of the social costs increase, as I mentioned. The matter of addressing the risk to minors by increasing penalties is specious, because you have made the residual black market so nearly invisible that enforcement is almost impossible. I saw this, for example, as a teen, where it was practically risk free to provide minors with alcohol, which is commonly available, can be "warehoused" as if intended for legitimate use, and where it is almost impossible to trace back to the supplier if the teen is caught inebriated. Heck, I saw plenty of people in their early twenties who were willing to buy a six pack for under aged kids for no remuneration, merely out of fellow feeling. How many 'ludes will similarly be distributed by casual suppliers that the teen couldn't even identify if he wanted to, with a "party on, dude" and a backslap.
Anyway, we do not have to win the war on drugs. We just have to suppress circulation to tolerable levels, which seems to be what we are doing....... |
