Tweet
The war on drugs failed, but it didn't even attempt to nullify the core cause of the problem:
The illicit substance market is far more lucrative than most other professions, for most of the parties involved
street level dealers buy in bulk at a discount and make good profit margins selling to the individual consumer
Distributers buy from the grower, who (depending on the substance and scale of the operation), has to put in far less time to make the same amount of money as working a full-time job, and the distributors have a competitive advantage against the growers, as they are able to transport the substances across the US southern border. Furthermore, the distributor STILL manages to make an enormous profit, as the street level dealers are either unwilling or unable to transport illicit substances long distance, this gives the distributors a competetive advantage against the street level dealers
combine these factors with the fact that the drugs in question are illegal and the fact that many of them have little elasticity in their demand, and you have all of the ingredients for a very rich market, with low barriers to entry for street level dealers, who engage in a LOT of competition amongst themselves, not just in the form of "terf wars" or drivebuys, but in taking advantage of the demand and lowering prices in order to outsell their competitors.
Some of these markets (IE the coke market) also experience a drought period, where the coke supply "dries up" contributing to a far greater demand (keep in mind that demand is increasing for a product with relatively low elasticity), allowing even a street level dealer to acquire a large supply of coke (in this example), and to wait until the drought season to sell it, the heightened demand can be taken advantage of to jack the price of a gram of coke from 90$ to, say, 100-120$. (edited)
The war on drugs failed to address the enormous incentive that the illicit substance market provides, and this could be done withhhhh
LEGALIZING AND REGULATING SUBSTANCE USE
​
Legalizing and regulating illicit substance would not only make them safer for the consumer, but would remove the incentive for 3rd parties to participate in the illicit drug trade, as the competition from a corporation with more capital, highly skilled laborers, and ease of garnering investments would CRUSH the illicit substance market, and with it, push the cartel's presence further south​.
might edit this later, it's really messy. see ya
Comment