Tuesday, May 26, 2009

How to make illicit drugs boring Here is a very succinct essay (by Alex Coolman, a San Francisco-based attorney working primarily on criminal appeals) on how to remove the glamour factor from illicit drugs.
Dramatic anti-drugs ads signally fail to reduce use. On the other hand, Tylenol packaging is really boring. While it's possibly cool and adventurous to get your drugs from a condom someone has smuggled inside their intestines, a bottle with a childproof lid, obtained on prescription, is not glamorous.
If drug dealers had to spend their time minimising their tax instead of dodging bullets, how much glamour would they project?
The psychology is simple -- it's just the same as when Fred Nile lambasts a movie and calls for its prohibition. Everyone immediately wants to see it. As explained beautifully in the book Madame Joy, nothing increases demand like prohibition.
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