3 ms·

Why would they be cheaper? Lab quality would require lab grade testing and safety, and lab grade ingredients, not to mention taxes on recreational drugs are usu

Why would they be cheaper? Lab quality would require lab grade testing and safety, and lab grade ingredients, not to mention taxes on recreational drugs are usually astronomical. And I doubt it would be easier to get either since they're unlikely to hand out an unlimited quantity to anyone who pays for it even if it were legal.

htag 3y ago
1. You can buy shopping carts full of alcohol at one time if you want. I've watched people purchase thousands of cigarettes in one purchase. Having essentially unlimited access to addictive drugs wouldn't be out of the social norm. 2. I think some drugs would become cheaper, and other drugs would become more expensive. Drugs with limited supply would become cheaper as more production/supply chains open up. Think cocaine, heroin, and some pharmaceuticals without large overseas labs. There are inefficiencies in the illegal drug trade that legal trade could smooth over as well: better payment methods, more open price negotiations, legal settlement for disputes, reduced employee churn from violence/arrest, reduced bribes/corruption related charges. 3. Regardless of the price of drugs, the overall price would be smaller, as illegal drug use has huge externalized costs. Everything from corrupt governments to increased health care utilization to wasted law enforcement resources to destroyed human capital. 4. The existence of an available quality tested market would force the black market to compete more on quality.
Eisenstein 3y ago
You do know that xylazine is an adulterant? It is put in there because it is tough to get cheap heroin and fentanyl tends to kill their client base a lot faster than tranq. Tranq is cheaper because it is available for animals, and not 'seizing and destroying something while putting the people who possess it in prison' is a great market force for lowering prices. Ergo, don't criminalize heroin and tranq stops appearing in it.
jandrewrogers 3y ago
Industrial small-molecule chemistry is extremely efficient. All of these drugs could be produced by the kiloton for small amounts of money if that was the objective. It would not require anything special. We already see this with alcohol. Most liquor is tarted-up industrial ethanol, delivered by train tankers to the bottling plants, with some marketing and branding wrapped around it. Industrial ethanol is very inexpensive to produce, around $1/liter; the price of consumption alcohol is downstream of excise taxes and branding. Cost is not a relevant factor. We can produce all of these chemicals for so little that it is a rounding error. This is a matter of policy.

htag 3y ago

1. You can buy shopping carts full of alcohol at one time if you want. I've watched people purchase thousands of cigarettes in one purchase. Having essentially unlimited access to addictive drugs wouldn't be out of the social norm. 2. I think some drugs would become cheaper, and other drugs would become more expensive. Drugs with limited supply would become cheaper as more production/supply chains open up. Think cocaine, heroin, and some pharmaceuticals without large overseas labs. There are inefficiencies in the illegal drug trade that legal trade could smooth over as well: better payment methods, more open price negotiations, legal settlement for disputes, reduced employee churn from violence/arrest, reduced bribes/corruption related charges. 3. Regardless of the price of drugs, the overall price would be smaller, as illegal drug use has huge externalized costs. Everything from corrupt governments to increased health care utilization to wasted law enforcement resources to destroyed human capital. 4. The existence of an available quality tested market would force the black market to compete more on quality.

Eisenstein 3y ago

You do know that xylazine is an adulterant? It is put in there because it is tough to get cheap heroin and fentanyl tends to kill their client base a lot faster than tranq. Tranq is cheaper because it is available for animals, and not 'seizing and destroying something while putting the people who possess it in prison' is a great market force for lowering prices. Ergo, don't criminalize heroin and tranq stops appearing in it.

jandrewrogers 3y ago

Industrial small-molecule chemistry is extremely efficient. All of these drugs could be produced by the kiloton for small amounts of money if that was the objective. It would not require anything special. We already see this with alcohol. Most liquor is tarted-up industrial ethanol, delivered by train tankers to the bottling plants, with some marketing and branding wrapped around it. Industrial ethanol is very inexpensive to produce, around $1/liter; the price of consumption alcohol is downstream of excise taxes and branding. Cost is not a relevant factor. We can produce all of these chemicals for so little that it is a rounding error. This is a matter of policy.