Drug entrepreneurs can always afford to pay more since the cost of the raw material is a minute fraction of the wholesale price of the delivered product. With more than a half-million arrests annually for marijuana possession alone, the bulk of police, prison and court resources is now devoted to drug law enforcement. Besides, Mr. Miron notes, for supply-side policies to work, drug prices must rise. And if, as most economists believe, the use of drugs is not particularly sensitive to price, the total value of drugs sold actually increases when enforcement is successful. This breeds ancillary crime as users steal to pay for their habits and dealers fight over turf.
Lower demand means lower prices, lower revenue and less incentive to steal and kill.
By no coincidence, then, demand-reducing drug treatment and education have become the centrist politician's mantra. Mr. Reuter acknowledges that treatment is often cost-effective. But he doubts that even the most dedicated treatment policy would reduce addiction by more than one-third. For Mr. Miron the best of all possible worlds would be one in which dangerous drugs are legal, with their use discouraged with taxes and social pressure. But many people who buy arguments against the flat-out prohibition cannot stomach policies that would probably lead to greater drug consumption.