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From: nose@nbires.UUCP (Steve Dunn)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Drug Abuse - True Problem or Media Hype?
Message-ID: <896@nbires.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 17-Sep-86 11:53:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: nbires.896
Posted: Wed Sep 17 11:53:01 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 23-Sep-86 01:02:34 EDT
References: <720@scc.UUCP> <20756@rochester.ARPA> <463@epimass.UUCP> <1302@trwrb.UUCP>
Organization: NBI,Inc, Boulder CO
Lines: 25
Summary: Why people have to steal to support their coke habit

In article <1302@trwrb.UUCP>, suhre@trwrb.UUCP (Maurice E. Suhre) writes:
> In article <463@epimass.UUCP> jbuck@epimass.UUCP (Joe Buck) writes:
> >explain to me why cocaine use is worse for society than alcohol and tobacco
> >use?
> 	I don't have to.  The principle is, if you have two problems
> 	on your hands, should you acquire a third one if you don't
> 	have to?
> 
> 	But for starters, I don't think that tobacco users have
> 	to steal to support their "habit".  Similar for alcohol
> 	users.
> 

I might point out that cocaine is not inherently all that difficult to make,
and I seriously doubt that it is inherently all that expensive to make. It is
however extremely expensive to buy. Now why is this? Well, it's because if
you make something illegal to sell or possess, the price will go way up. Both
because supply is limited and because you are paying a "risk premium" to the
people involved in the business. I can't help but conclude that the reason
people steal to support thier habit is because the drug is *expensive* and
that the drug is expensive *because* it is illegal. It would seem then to
be absurd to argue that cocaine should be illegal because it's users often
can't afford thier habit and resort to stealing to support it.

               -Steve "Piss bottles for God and Country" Dunn