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From: fagin@ucbvax.ARPA (Barry Steven Fagin)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Drugs & the free market: more facts for Robert Z.
Message-ID: <5674@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 21-Mar-85 11:46:12 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.5674
Posted: Thu Mar 21 11:46:12 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 22-Mar-85 02:38:35 EST
References: <1002@phs.UUCP>
Reply-To: fagin@ucbvax.UUCP (Barry Steven Fagin)
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 21
Summary: There ain't no free market for heroin, but there ought to be

According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA),
the typical heroin addict's dose is between 40 and 50 mg per day, at
a cost of around $100.  ($100/day = a LOT of crime!)  Of course, this 
price varies widely from city to city, but it's a good starting point.  

To get an idea of what the cost might be if the free market had a chance 
to operate, consider the price of morphine.  Morphine is tightly controlled 
but legal in the US for medical purposes, and costs abut 15c per 30 mg tablet.  
Morphine is between 1/2 and 1/3 as effective as heroin, depending on the person,so in the worst case a 45 mg/day heroin habit could be maintained on 135 
mg/day of morphine at a cost of 68c.  Let's allow for a 100% pharmacist markup
(generous, it seems to me), and add 15c for the purchase of a disposable
syringe (assume that's legal too), and we get a total cost of $1.50/day.

How many people steal to support a 2-pack a day cigarette habit?  How
many people think the free market operates in heroin distribution?  How
many people think it should?

--Barry

-- 
Barry Fagin @ University of California, Berkeley