🚀 go-pugleaf

Interestingly enough, besides the monopolic power that the ban on drugs
confers to druglords (making it one of if not the biggest monopoly
worlwide), it is assumed that the black market stregy brings additioal
revenue since demand is inelastic. When discussing the inelasticity of
the demand for drugs, at some point economists digress toward the
substitution coefficients of different drugs and *alcohol*. The
implicit assumption is that drugs are not interchangeable with alcohol
and thus demand is inelastic, therefore higher prices mean higher
revenue despite loses  in demanded quantity. Yet, what they fail to
acknowledge, is that drugs may not be perfectly substitutable among
themselves or with alcohol, but *no taking drugs* is a perfectly valid
option. This option is totally overlooked under the fantasy that drug
users, once begin using drugs, cannot at any moment stop their use.
This can only be true of very few cases, otherwise there would be lots
of full time consumers. Once recognized this phallacy, it is obvious
that no consumption is a valid option that, added to other substitutes,
basically alcohol, makes demand *much more elastic* than previously
assumed. Given the possibility of stopping drug use within a reasonable
time framework, it can even be postulated that drug demand is, more
than inelastic, elastic, as *withdrawing* from the market is an obvious
choice if price or risk increment themselves, and, very specially, once
TOLERANCE (which makes even non obvious options *more appealing*)
settles in the individual. All in all, demand for drugs (following the
usual schedule of THC as first choice, followed by harder drugs if at
all), can be seen as ultimately ELASTIC. This means that the black
market strategy is in fact the wrong strategy if druglords wanted to
increase their revenues. An expansion of the market with lower prices
would bring bigger revenue, particularly if risk in consumption is
diminished. It would, of course, decrease the social costs of the ban
of drugs.

Though the precise elasticty is an empiric matter, it is obvious that
whatever value it takes (independently of the elasticies of
substitution among options), the fact that no consumption is an option
even by so called *drug addicts* (doesn`t matter if it is termed force
of will or detox clinic), means that the elasticity must approach that
of goods with more options and be fairly elastic. A partial or total
opening of the market would bring increase revenue to drug lords,
depriving them of the incentive to effect side effects to keep the
social notion that drugs are infallibly damaging, even for mature, well
informed consumers. Further possibilities granted by an open market,
like trademarks, quality control, marketing, R&D, etc. would further
affect the elasticity of demand toward a more elastic schedule. This
would affect police budgets, leaving the police corps and revenue
services as the main interests in creating side effects even if
druglords understand that opening the market would increase their
revenues (it can be expected that the loss of monopolic power would be
compensated by standard marketing strategies, as well as by the reduced
costs once the need to keep multiple layer distributors and security
forces [gunmen], is terminated). Considering that police budgets need
not *necessarily* be reduced by opening the drug market, this leaves as
the main effectors of side effects not the whole police corp but only
those elements and their vertical mafias that get a revenue from
extortion and protection. Opening the drug market would clear the
atmosphere and would liberate the police of a source of corruption.
(Incidentally, health services would remain at least at their present
level of budgets or would increase them lightly; budget reductions in
police corps would be reflected in increases in health budgets, which
theoretically would make health services a natural choice for policemen
affected by the reduction in budgets. Ultimately, no unemployment for
honest people would be experienced, but only by those arms forces
employed by the mythical druglords).

Fabrizio J Bonsignore, now Danilo J Bonsignore, waiting for somebody to
notice...