Thursday, March 10, 2005
More on the Drug War
I must say I agree heartily with Patrick's assessment of this ad. But then, in the long run it probably isn't any less effective than lying about it. Just more obviously stupid in the short run. And then there's the whole cultural appropriation/colonialism issue. Ugh.
Also, a quick side note. It should be obvious that I think the drug laws and policies are, at best, stupid, and more realistically, very harmful. But (yet) another argument against them is that they don't make economic sense: not only do we spend trillions of dollars a year fighting "The War on Drugs," but we also lose all of the economic activity that goes on in the black market. If drugs were legal, you could tax their development, production, and sale. The transactions on the black market are essentially a black hole: it involves exchanges of goods/money between two individuals, and does not really result in a net gain (or loss) to society and the wider economy. Plug all that back into the economy, and we could have tax cuts and social security!
Also, a quick side note. It should be obvious that I think the drug laws and policies are, at best, stupid, and more realistically, very harmful. But (yet) another argument against them is that they don't make economic sense: not only do we spend trillions of dollars a year fighting "The War on Drugs," but we also lose all of the economic activity that goes on in the black market. If drugs were legal, you could tax their development, production, and sale. The transactions on the black market are essentially a black hole: it involves exchanges of goods/money between two individuals, and does not really result in a net gain (or loss) to society and the wider economy. Plug all that back into the economy, and we could have tax cuts and social security!
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