Drugs, Organized Crime, and ECON

[bcubed]

Okay, so this is mainly for the ECON geeks, like me.

One reason I liked ECON so much is you come up with some completely bizzarre, yet logically probable, stuff. I always smiled when the Prof mentioned the words, "perverse incentive."

I was musing recently about the seventies. Besides the ugly clothes, etc, two pertinent details:

1. The Mafia was a bigger deal than today.
2. Drugs (well, Heroin mostly) were less pure and more expensive.

That made me think if the two were related. I mean, the basic (economic)function of the mob is to create a monopolist market: they drive out competitors, and create "barriers to entry" to the market for newcomers (basically, that you'd get whacked). Then, they function as any good cartel: drive down output, and up prices, so that they can realize "monopoly rents."

So, this makes me think that--even though drug importation, distribution, etc lends itself to organized crime--if one were in favor of cheap drugs with high purity, one would do well to support law enforcement efforts against organized crime.

(Of course, if the effort were completely successful, it'd be the end of the market...but such efforts never truly are.)

Reputation Comments on this post:

very true but somewhat disturbing

[x cynic x]

LOL! the citizens opposing LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) certainly DO have a perverse incentive in that respect, good thoughts though, they should be blogged IMO.