NARCO-ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Meth's emergence as a drug of choice (9/27/98 feature) is not so much
"insidious" as foreseeable. As the "Iron Law of Prohibition" predicts,
escalating enforcement brings increasingly concentrated and hazardous drugs
to market. From pot to coke to crack to methamphetamine, each major
anti-drug crackdown has spurred the introduction of new drugs that are
stronger and harder to interdict. No surprise. When pressed,
narco-entrepreneurs introduce new products to fit prevailing market
conditions.

The anti-Prohibition rhyme that "it don't prohibit worth a dime" still rings
true. Far from eliminating pleasure drugs, prohibition merely determines how
they'll be distributed -- namely, through a black-market system. It's known
that interdiction captures 15% of drug contraband at best. Perversely, the
fraction seized guarantees the value of the other 85% by raising prices and
eliminating competitors. In the end, enforcement victories against
individual black markets work to uphold the black-market system as a whole.

Checked-by: Don Beck