Crime and Drugs

1. Crime and Drugs Christopher Campbell

2. Different Views of Legalization • Liberty: An argument for legalization • Paternalism: An argument against legalization • Morality: An argument against legalization

3. Analysis of Drug Policy • Prohibition causes the supply curve to decrease • Price per gram to increase from $20 a gram to $100 a gram • Quantity exchanged decreases

4. Does Enforcement Work? • Greater Enforcement will increase price • Casual user will buy less drugs when prices increase • A dependent user buys slightly less and pays higher price.

5. Unintended but Inevitable Consequences of Drug Prohibition • Creates criminals out of 10 percent of the U.S population • Creates unsafe drugs • Corruption of Public Officials • Large opportunity for less fortunate to make easy money • Increases the amount of crimes done by dependent users.

6. Unintended But Perhaps Avoidable Consequences of Prohibition • Increase the price of marijuana relative to cocaine. • Increased purity of cocaine at street level • Recruitment of young teenagers and preteens into selling drugs • Opportunity cost of drug prohibition is very high.

7. Unintended Consequences of Drug Legalization • Increase of birth defects • Contribute to more family break-ups • Increase the cost of health and automotive insurance

8. Equimarginal Principle • Equimarginal principle- states that in allocation of a fixed budget the last dollar spent on one activity should yield should yield the same marginal benefit as the last dollar spent on any other activiy.