> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
Has anyone seen Posner advocating free
> commerce in Heroin or LSD? Surely it would be more efficient economically
> [according to "their" theories] to let folks have access to those "goods",
> even Freidman says so. Visualize a necker cube...
Actually, Posner in his textbook ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF LAW (the bible of the conservative law and econ types) argues:
"The eocnomic arguements for criminalization of the drug trade are rather unimpressive. Similar arguments could, after all, be made for outlawing alcoholic beverages (whose third-party effects, via accidents, are greater than those of illegal drugs) and even cigarettes (cigarettes are much less likely to be implicated in accidents, but they probably are more self-destructive - and addictive - than most illegal drugs.)...precisely because alcohol and tobacco are close, and legal, substitutes for illegal drugs, even a complete victory in the war on drugs might not lead to a significant decline in the problems that motivated the war." (267)
Having said that, he then says that if society insists on the goal of reducing drug use, there are some interesting arguments for why education efforts are not only less effective than punishment, but would shift use to poorer users. He ignores availability of addiction and rehab services as a factor, however, making his analysis rather limited, but his overall contempt for the drug war is clear. One of those areas where the law and econ types do not mirror at least the official rightwing line (although Buckley and a few other conservatives have also signed off the war on drugs.)
--Nathan Newman