Joanna
At 16:56 21-05-01, you wrote:
>--- Michael Perelman <michael at ecst.csuchico.edu> wrote: > If cigarettes were
>illegal, wouldn't a violent distribution emerge.
> >
> > --
>
>Currently very, very easy to get your head kicked in by encroaching on someone
>else's patch for the distribution of smuggled baccy in any town in the UK. I
>don't know anyone who pays full taxed retail price for cigarettes any
>more; the
>distribution network appears to be unemployed ex-miners from the NorthEast of
>England who take vans across to Belgium. I've seen a few of them knocking
>seven bells out of some poor kid in a dispute over the distribution rights for
>a pub in North London. The sums of money involved mean that there aren't any
>guns involved however. I think that a cigarette distribution network would be
>*less* violent than crack cocaine, however, because cigarettes have a lower
>value density than crack. I also think that the low value density is
>intrinsic
>to the pharmacological properties of nicotine compared to cannabis,
>heroin, etc
>-- you need to transport a larger volume to provide someone with their daily
>consumption. For this reason, it's never going to be the kind of high-stakes
>product that's worth carrying an Uzi (and risking the concomitant jailtime)
>over.
>
>d^2
>
>=====
>... in countries which do not enjoy Mediterranean sunshine idleness is
>more difficult, and a great public propaganda will be required to
>inaugurate it. -- Bertrand Russell
>
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