Wednesday, March 21, 2007


The number of police deaths in Mexico in incidents involving organised crime has jumped 50% this year, according to official statistics. At least 61 police officers have been killed in Mexico since the year began. The increase in police deaths follows a crackdown on drug-related violence by the Mexican government.

Addiction might have a genetic component, but it can no more excuse bad behavior than a diathesis for rape can excuse rape; (we would never make rape legal because most who commit it have a genetic diathesis for sexual aggression/predation. Nor would we legalize serial murder if we found a gene for a predisposition for psychopathic/sociopathological multiple homicide).

Genetic diatheses can only serve as a basis for treatment, and cannot logically argue for legalization - in my opinion. M. Friedman and M. Simon disagree - maybe one of them will weigh in...


M. Simon said...

We didn't get rid of the alcohol cartels by taking down Al Capone.

Legalization killed that business.

Law enforcement is a price support mechanism for the drug cartels.

Milton Friedman said that drug prohibition is socialism. What is worse is that it is socialism for criminals.

It always amazes me how popular socialism is among the right.

I know how it is. "My pet project is not socialism. I'm just making up for market failures."

Isn't that what they all say?

BTW I'd like to know what power the Federal Government was granted in the Constitution that gives the Government the power to prevent people from using the medicines they prefer?

Such choices may be wise or unwise but under the IXth Amendment they are none of the government's business.

Well neither the right nor the left are going to let a thing like the Constitution interfere with their desired ends.

Oh, well. I'm probably just howling into the wind.

Reliapundit said...

there is no monpoly in the illegal narcotics biz. there would be if th govt picked a distributer. then and only them would it be socialism.


the analogy sux.

the libertarian argument is sillY; like arguing against traffic lights.

you do not address at counter-argument at all. that genetics matters not.

M. Simon said...

Price supports for any industry are socialism.

Doesn't matter if the is one supplier or 50.

Think of the drug war as just another agricultural subsidy.

Do you favor agricultural subsidies?

The drug war is what makes a pile of vegetables worth its weight in gold. That is a lot of arbitrage.

M. Simon said...

Let us suppose I'm rigt on self medication.

Do you favor government denying people their medication of choice?

The self medication aspect is what makes the drug market so inelastic.

Genetics is important because that means even if drugs cause addiction most people can't get addicted. So we deny 80% the best medicine (in some cases) because 20% have a problem. Didn't alcohol prohibition teach us the folly of that?

When drugs were legal it was demon alcohol. Then alcohol was made legal and the guys who used to work alcohol prohibition moved into drug prohibition. i.e drug prohibition for the Government is just another jobs program.

We have been at this for over 70 years and on a price purity basis heroin has dropped in price by a factor of 600. So I guess prohibition is working.

Here is my prediction on Mexico: after a lot of fanfare and trumpeting of "results" and piles of narcotics and money and guns laid out on tables for the news cameras, things will be back to normal.

Suppliers enter a business based on profitability.

What happens when you knock out a supplier? Prices and profits go up attracting new entrants to the business. i.e. every attack on the supply chain is ultimately self defeating.

When we broke up the big Columbian cartels did we end the drug trade? Nope. We fragmented it. Instead of a supply chain hierarchy we got a lot of independent operators.

The Soviets never defeated the black market. What makes Americans so special?

Honestly, it seems that the right should understand economics. The belief that economics doesn't operate in certain spheres is just wishful thinking.

The belief that government can outlaw markets by fiat is a religious belief not dissimilar to the belief in AGW. Operates about the same too. There is no profit in carbon credits without Government intervention.